Ghost Warrior
by deathwing17
Summary: While Nova was still in the Ghost Academy she met someone, someone who managed to change her outlook on the mindwipe procedure that she had been looking forward to ever since she had arrived at the Academy, how would this small change affect her future and the future of those around her? plz read and review
1. New Teammate

Starcraft: Ghost Warrior

Chapter 1

New teammate

Disclaimer: I own nothing, StarCraft belongs to Blizzard except my OC Andrew Cole

A/N: this takes place in the manga Starcraft: Ghost Academy and will get more and more AU as it goes on

Also since I'm not entirely sure of Nova's age during her time in the Ghost Academy I'm just going to say that she is around seventeen years old.

"Talking"

"_Thought sending"_

'_Thinking'_

* * *

-One Year After the Brood War-

* * *

Nova and the other four members of Blue Team looked through the jungle's thick foliage and into the clearing where a Star Hopper class shuttle was parked at. According to their squad leader, Gabriel Tosh there was a senator aboard and several aides that were being held hostage by several UED (United Earth Directorate) pirates. The mission was simple: rescue the senator plus his aides and kill the pirates.

She then looked over at the rest of her team, Kath Toom who was the daughter of a high ranking corporate executive officer, but like all children who had a telekinetic or telepathic gift she was forced into joining the Ghost program despite her father's power and wealth. Lio a scatterbrained geek who had a knack for manipulating electronic devices. Gabriel Tosh was the de facto leader of Blue team and Andrew Cole who was a recent transfer student from the Korhal Ghost academy.

Andrew had short dark brown hair and green eyes as well as a small almost unnoticeable scar on his chin that just about everyone had written off to some kind of a childhood injury. Andrew had been transferred for some reason a couple of months ago from the academy on Korhal. Many believed that that the reason for his transfer was probably because that Korhal's academy was probably starting to get overcrowded with all of the Ghost trainees that had been transferred there as of late. Andrew never really talked about his past before joining the Ghost Academy, whenever asked about it he usually steered the topic away from it as best he could.

At the moment though, nobody really cared about his background, only that mattered right now was that he was able to perform exceedingly well with his telepathic/telekinetic abilities and firearms. Nova finished loaded her C10 Canister rifle and looked over at the rest of the squad she'd been assigned to and hoped that the rest of her "team" wouldn't get in her way. Ever since Nova had been recruited into the ghost academy she had been a loner at best, absolutely antisocial at worst. Nova seemed to be focused on only simple one thing. Becoming a Ghost operative no matter the cost.

The main and quite possibly only reason that she even wanted to become a Ghost was to get the brain panning procedure as it had always been so affectionately called, that every single trainee would get at the end of their training which would allow her to forget about the night of her family's brutal murder as well as the six months in a never-ending nightmare in hell that had followed it. Tosh was about to explain their plan of attack but before he could even get a chance to begin elaborating Nova had just run off towards the ship.

"_Nova wait we got a plan don't mess it up!" _Tosh sent but she completely ignored him and continued to make her way towards the shuttle.

"_All right screw it, Lio you scale the shuttle and take out anyone in the cockpit, Kath you head in through the maintenance hatch and Andrew you go and make sure that Nova doesn't get herself killed. Remember people these guys are using psi-screens so watch your backs" _

"_Understood boss man"_ Andrew sent back to Tosh and the others. After Tosh had given them their orders Andrew immediately ran into a sprint in an attempt to catch up to Nova. _'I really wish that she wouldn't do these stupid things'_ he thought to himself irritably. Whenever the preceptors had them do a team orientated mission Nova would almost routinely just run off on her own and try to finish the mission by herself but at least on occasion she would try and work with him but that was rather rare in fact it had only happened once or twice in the one month that he'd been here.

However after this mission Andrew made himself a mental note to give Nova a serious talk about a little thing that was called as teamwork. It took a few moments but he finally caught up to his wayward teammate who had just crawled into one of the engine access shafts that would lead into the ship.

Not wasting any time, Andrew went in after her _"Nova what the hell are you thinking your going to fuck this whole thing up!"_ he sent angrily but the girl didn't respond instead she continued on through the access shaft. Andrew sighed knowing that trying to convince Nova to work with him as a team would be similar to attempt to convince a brick wall to move out of the way. The trainee figured that the best and most likely only thing that he could do to help Nova was to follow her and make sure that she didn't get herself killed.

In just a few minutes after its execution, Gabriel Tosh's plan had almost completely fallen apart, Kath had been killed by an explosion that originated from a booby trap near her entry point on the ship, Lio had slipped on the wing while climbing up and when he tried to grab onto the edge he did manage to grab on but unfortunately the part he grabbed onto was too slippery and this caused him to fall to the ground. The second that he hit the ground he was winded and soon lost consciousness.

Tosh continued through one of the ship's air shafts and spotted one of the UED pirates was standing guard outside what Tosh had assumed to be a hallway leading to the passenger area of the ship. Currently the guard was smoking a cigarette not paying much attention and pulled the trigger on his C10 Canister Rifle. The armor piercing rounds tore straight through the man's metal plated armor and destroyed several of the pirate's vital organs before the rounds stopped losing their momentum after hitting the back portion of the armor.

_'One down'_ thought Tosh with a grin but his victory was short lived because the instant that he cleared the corner and walked down into the next hallway he was quickly gunned down by a UED pirate who had been silently lying in wait for him.

* * *

"_Looks like it's just us now" _Andrew sent as he and Nova made their way towards the passenger area of the ship _"Yeah"_ Nova sent sounding almost a little nervous. Nova was about to move up and go out on her own again when Andrew's arm shot out and grabbed her by the shoulder.

"_Look Nova I don't know what the hell your problem is and quite frankly I don't give a shit but we're the only two remaining who can finish this mission so please let's work together on this one, okay?"_ he sent. Nova looked at him and she didn't even need to scan his thoughts to know that the boy didn't intend on letting go of her until she agreed. She sighed before she sent "_Okay, fine you win, we'll work together"_ Andrew gave Nova a small smile _"Thank you"_.

They continued to make their way through the ship and were about to go through the door into the passenger area of the ship when Andrew signaled Nova to stop where she was. He walked up to the door and listened in closely. There were several people in heavy marine issued armor walking around the passenger side of the ship.

"_Judging by the sounds that their armor's making I'd wager that there should be about two or three pirates in that room at the maximum"_ he sent.

"_What about booby traps?"_ Nova asked. Andrew turned his head to her and raised an eyebrow before he sent _"This is the passenger part of the ship you don't booby trap the area that has your hostages unless you plan on becoming a martyr which I seriously doubt is what these bozos want. We'll commence a synchronized strike on three, you waste the guys on the right I'll take out the ones that are on the left"_ he then used his hand to count down.

The instant that Andrew had reached zero the two ghost operatives burst into the room causing the UED pirates to turn and look over at them with looks of complete surprise before the two ghosts quickly opened fire on the pirates with their C10 canister rifles. The UED rebels were quickly and efficiently gunned down in a precise hail of armor piercing bullets. Once the last of the pirates had hit the floor Nova ran up to one of the hostages who looked like he had just seen an angel "Are there anymore of them on board?" she asked.

They all remained silent for a moment before one of the aides stood up and looked Nova right in the eye "Yeah there are about two of them in the cockpit" he said. Andrew told Nova to take out the remaining guards while he secured an exit for the hostages. Once Nova started to head for the cockpit section of the ship, the "aide" who had warned Nova about the remaining pirates took out a small suppressed automatic pistol and aimed it at Nova's back but before he could pull the trigger Andrew appeared behind him and whacked hit him on the back of the head with the butt of his rifle knocking him out.

Nova turned back when she heard the "aide" fall down and looked at Andrew "Thanks" she said sincerely.

The ghost operative reached the doorway that led into the cockpit and slowly opened the door, the two ex-UED marines turned around but before they could fire they were gunned down in a barrage of bullets. The second that the last pirate fell to the ground a feminine voice came from over the loudspeakers "Simulation Over."

Then everything in the world began to slowly dissolve around them. Kath who after being "Killed" was sent into the ready room along with the others of her team who had been killed or knocked out and waited until the exercise had been finished. She quickly walked up to Nova and Andrew. "You both did pretty good" she congratulated. Nova gave what looked like an uncaring nod while Andrew gave another smile "Thanks Kath though I think that all of us could have done a little better" he said giving a slight chuckle.

* * *

-Outside The Training Room-

* * *

The trainees stood at attention in front of the preceptor, "Training session blue-one completed" said a small hovering camera like robot next to the preceptor. "This was the first exercise for the new team initiative. The teams are supposed to be six strong but I was told to assemble Blue Team one short. I'm hoping that the director will assign your sixth sooner rather than later. Now Sparky could you please give them their rankings" preceptor Elena ordered.

Sparky was the main computer of the academy. Its main duties were to monitors trainees to make sure that they were obeying the rules of the facility as well as assisting trainees and their instructors in carrying out what they were told to do while they were at the ghost academy. "Trainee fourth class Andrew Cole, eighty percent, trainee fourth class Lio Travski ten percent" said the floating robot while Lio muttered "Crap" over and over even as it gave the bald boy his ratings.

"Trainee third class Kath Toom twenty percent, first class trainee Gabriel Tosh forty five percent, Nova Terra seventy percent" once the ratings were done they were ordered by their preceptor to make their way for preceptor Soohoo's history class. While they walked towards the next class Kath let out a long groan.

"Great Soohoo's lectures are always the boringest" she said before Lio looked at her strangely "I don't think that boringest is a word Kath" he corrected before Kath let out a small giggle "Well if it was a word than it would probably describe Soohoo" she remarked.

As they continued towards history class Nova thought she caught a glimpse of a shadow of what looked like a little boy moving around the corner. She followed the kid around the corner but once she cleared it she didn't see anything but a bunch of janitorial supplies. Nova closed her eyes for a moment _'I must be a little out of it today'_ she thought to herself while rubbing her temples.

"Hey Nova c'mon we're going to be late!" Tosh called snapping the girl out of her thoughts "Coming!" she replied before she hurried off.

* * *

-Preceptor Soohoo's Classroom-

* * *

If there was one class that Andrew Cole hated with a passion then it would have to be preceptor Soohoo's. the reason for this was because even though it was primarily about history, something that Andrew had always enjoyed to research, it was ruined because nearly every word that came out of Soohoo's mouth was practically festering with Pro-Dominion propaganda.

Soohoo continued to drone on and on about how the evil Confederacy was toppled by their new heroic and glorious leader Arcturus Mengsk. The ghost trainee quickly tuned the old buzzard out not really paying much attention to him until Lio mentioned how the Terran Confederacy used ghost operatives as well as the Dominion. Andrew wondered for a moment how much propaganda would be laced into this part of the lecture "I'm glad that you mentioned that Lio, strictly speaking, yes they did-" Soohoo began.

'_Here it comes'_ thought Andrew preparing himself for more propaganda which as it so happened was the only thing that was capable of coming forth from the old man's mouth. "-But the confederacy was a weak, decadent and corrupt government. The old families were far more interested in their own wealth and improving their positions rather than the welfare of the people that they ruled over but even before the Zerg invaded Tarsonis the Confederacy was falling apart.

Emperor Mengsk and the Sons of Korhal were able to topple the old Confederacy and create the Terran Dominion in part of the Confederacy's own decadence but primarily because Mengsk cares about his people not his bank account" the preceptor finished before starting up again. Andrew almost rolled his eyes but managed to stop himself before he could start.

"The Dominion's enemies are everywhere, not just race traitors like the Umojans, the UED or Raynor's Raiders. Not just alien threats such as the Zerg and the Protoss but those Terrans who live among us who would more than happily drag us back to the decadence and ruin of the Confederacy" he said before he announced that the class was over and that the next day they would be going over the fall of Tarsonis.

As they walked out of the room as quickly as they could Kath ran up to Lio "Told you Lio I doubt anyone needs a nap when we got preceptor Soohoo?" Kath joked giving the boy a playful nudge. "I guess so, yeah Kath, if you say so, yeah" Lio said sweating a little bit. Lately Lio had been acting little stranger than normal but most of the team just chalked it up to Lio simply being himself but a couple members figured that there was something more going on than that but they weren't going to interfere what happened in Lio's private life unless it became something of importance.

What happened with him in his personal time was his own business. The bald trainee then quickly ran off as fast as he could down the hall saying that he had something important to get to leaving the rest of the team to wonder what in the hell was going on with the ghost in training.

As Blue Team walked down the hall to their next class Red Team's leader a girl by the name of Dylanna walked up to Nova "Hey you, blondie!" she yelled. '_Oh good god here go again'_ Andrew thought bitterly. Ever since Andrew had been assigned to blue team he noticed that another trainee, Dylanna had a real stick up her ass about Nova for some stupid reason.

He mainly chalked it up to the possibility that it was just her trying to just show off for some reason in front of her friends/teammates. Nova however tried her best to ignore the girl's taunts and rather than respond with taunts or threats of her own she instead remained calm. "My name isn't blondie, it's Nova"

"I don't give a shit if your name's Mengsk, you think your so great cause you got a seventy and broke some fucking record!" Dylanna roared before continuing "Well guess what blondie that was my record you broke"

'_And yet you're getting pissed with her despite the fact that I broke both of your records on the same freaking mission' _Andrew thought bitterly knowing that the bitch just wanted to try and start something with her as she had been attempting to ever since Nova had joined the Ghost Academy.

"Look I'm sorry I-" Nova started before Red team's leader continued "But I'm not even pissed about that blondie, what I am pissed off is that you only got that rank is because you got most of your team killed and then went on alone until Cole boy over there finally managed to knock some god damned sense into you, you basically just got a fucking seventy for being incompetent"

Nova turned around from facing her and started walking towards the mess hall "Look I'm sorry but I don't know what you're talking about" she said before Dylanna yelled. "Don't you dare turn your back on me bitch!" before she continued with her rant "When I got a sixty eight on the Planet Hopper my whole team managed to stay alive, in other words you basically got rewarded for being incompetent" but before the hot headed girl could continue she felt a hand on her shoulder that made her stop. Dylanna turned and saw Tosh looking at her with a stern expression on her face and he was clearly not amused.

"You made your point now you're done" he said firmly before Dylanna angrily smacked his hand away "Oh I'm just getting started" she said Nova kept walking away from red team's leader "Maybe it wasn't so much that Nova was rewarded for her own incompetence but because the rest of her team made her shit look good Tosh!" upon hearing this Kath became absolutely livid, she hated it when people even implied that she was incompetent especially when she put her all into something like that simulated mission.

"We're incompetent? Why you little-" Kath started but was cut off by blue team's leader who put a muscular arm out in front of her. "Leave it be Kath" Tosh ordered doing his best to keep this argument from becoming a full fledged fist fight. That was the last thing they needed at the moment. Dylanna however just gave an irritating smirk to the rest of Blue team before she and the rest of squad left to go to the cafeteria since her grandstanding was pretty much over.

"Hey Nova left the four of us to do an assignment that required six I'd say we did pretty damn well considering" said Kath

"I Ain't saying your not right, Dylanna's just putting on a big show for her team, leaders got to be like that" Tosh explained

"You're not like that" Kath noted but Tosh gave out a hearty chuckle "That's not my style" they both turned when they heard a sigh of relief coming from Andrew "Thank god for that I'd probably have to hang myself if I had to listen to that kind of bullshit almost every hour of the day" Andrew said jokingly before he adopted a serious expression on his face and continued "All kidding aside though I'm going to talk to Nova later and see if I can convince her to work with us a little more"

His other two team members looked at him incredulously. Tosh had been trying to do that for weeks, and thus far had made no progress so what hope did Andrew thought he had. However the young trainee just put his arms in front of him in defense

"Hey I did manage to get her to work together with me on the Planet Hopper when the rest of you guys got wasted" he explained. Tosh and Kath looked at each other for a moment thinking the exact same thing _'He does make a valid argument on that one'_ the two of them then turned their heads towards their friend.

"He does have a point" Kath admitted while Tosh simply smiled and said "Good luck friend"

"Thanks boss man I'm probably going to need it." replied Andrew

* * *

Lio meanwhile was running towards one of the Academy's blind spots where there was little to no security monitoring where he would meet a little friend of his who would give him a refill on his stash. His friend and supplier for the drug was another trainee Kam who gave him Hab in exchange for his help with some history work. Lio waited in the isolated area of the facility for his friend and after a few minutes of waiting he was startled by a tap on his shoulder.

Lio practically jumped and screamed in surprise. He turned and saw Kam putting his index finger to his lips in the universal saying of "Shut the hell up before you make somebody notice us"

"Lower the volume would you this may be one of Sparky's blind spots but if you shout loud enough then were screwed" Kam insisted but Lio just gave him a reassuring look "Hey don't worry I'm the one who made it a blind spot remember"

Kam then rubbed the back of his head sheepishly "Right I keep forgetting that you can Teep machines that's so badass" said Kam almost enviously at Lio's abilities that gave him power over machines "It's fine, fine, fine. So where's the Hab huh, huh?" he asked excitedly and almost hysterically.

Kam hated to do this to his best customer, he really did, but there was nothing he could really do in this situation. It was just out of his hands "Sorry man you're gonna have to wait till tomorrow, the supply ship's running a little late" Kam explained. However this made Lio start showing more of his withdrawal symptoms upon being told that he'd have to wait until tomorrow.

"Look pal this maybe fine for you but I'm royally fucked if I don't get my Hab soon okay I've got a condition I need to take care of!" he said while he tightly grabbed onto the collar of Kam's jacket making the young drug peddler a little nervous. Kam had seen what people would do to get a fix and all the time it was never very pretty look at. "Hey these things take time it'll be here by tomorrow I promise you okay?"

Lio slowly let go of Kam's jacket and said "Okay, okay just make sure it gets here tomorrow" he said before the two of them went their separate ways.

* * *

Back in the cafeteria Andrew had just grabbed his lunch and walked over to where Nova was sitting. It wasn't hard to spot her, she was sitting alone on one of the corner tables like she normally did when ever class ended.

Andrew walked up to her and sat down across from her. "Hello Nova" he said "Hi" Nova responded not really paying much attention to him. "I think we should talk about your lack of teamwork since you were assigned to blue team" Nova then gave him a dismissive look "Teamwork doesn't matter only becoming a Ghost does that's it" she said.

Andrew let out a sigh and elaborated a bit further "The only way any of us are ever going to end up as ghost operatives is if we actually work together on this. The team initiative was made so that when we become Ghosts, we can actually work better with regular troops who naturally don't trust anyone who's a Ghost to begin with.

If we can show people that we are willing to work with them and watch their backs in a fight than they'll be more likely to trust us and watch our backs rather than just turn on us. So could you please, just think about it? That's all that I'm asking of you" he said before Nova sighed realizing that not only was Andrew not going to let this go until she agreed but he also made a very good point.

"Alright, alright I'll give it some thought" she said which made Andrew let out a sigh of relief "Thank you I appreciate that" said Andrew before eating his food. Once Andrew had finished eating his lunch he spotted Tosh ten or fifteen feet away talking with one of the preceptors and some guy who had medium length brown hair that was put up into a ponytail but had two bangs on either side of his face.

To Andrew the guy standing there looked a little too old to be in the Ghost Academy since he appeared to be at least in his early twenties and the majority of the trainees were normally from ten to seventeen years in age "What's up boss man?" Andrew asked gesturing to the new guy in the Ghost academy "We got ourselves a new team member" Tosh explained gesturing at the man in front of them.

"I gathered that much but who is this guy?" he asked "Name's Aal Cistler kid" the newcomer said with a bored yet arrogant and pompous tone before he walked off towards Dylanna and from what Andrew and the others could tell, began to flirt with her.

Andrew looked at the scene and sighed "Well he's only been here a few seconds and I already don't like him" Andrew grumbled watching as his opinion of the new guy plummeted downwards faster than a Hercules class dropship that had run out of fuel while flying in a high gravity world. "Oh it gets even better" the preceptor said as she raised her eyebrows jokingly before adopting an annoyed look on her face "It turns out Mr. Casanova over there is only a four point five" said the preceptor before both of the ghost trainees turned around and looked at the woman.

"What? A four point five IQ?" Andrew asked jokingly while Tosh however was a little more serious about the situation.

"He's not even a-" Tosh started but the preceptor waved her hand signaling them to stop continued "I know it's against the Academy's policy but this comes down from the top" she explained while shrugging.

"Well I do like a challenge" Tosh remarked "Good cause you're going to have one with this guy" said the preceptor before she walked away going back to her other duties. Andrew sighed and turned to Blue team's fearless leader. "Well it's official we are royally and completely screwed with that idiot on our team" he deadpanned. Tosh looked over at Aal and saw how it was he was acting before he turned and looked back at Andrew on the verge of agreeing with him but held himself back and instead just said "I sure as hell hope not"

* * *

-Training Complex B17-

* * *

The next day team blue was ordered into the Labyrinth as most people called it. The Labyrinth was exactly what it sounded like, it was a maze that had been filled to the brim with combat bots and heavy duty turret defenses. The main objective the exercise was that a separated team would have to find each other and then make their way towards the center of the maze to deactivate the defenses.

Each squad member had been cut off from the rest of the group and placed in different parts of the maze to create more of a challenge for the trainees. And as if that wasn't the only twist that the preceptors had added for the day, once the training exercise had begun the maze would be darkened considerably and despite being given IR goggles it would still be difficult because they would only be able to see two or three meters in front of them at the maximum.

After everyone signaled that they were ready for the test to begin the preceptor hit the start button on the man computer console.

_"Okay people as you make your way through the maze scan the area you're in I want a full visual map of this place ASAP"_ Tosh ordered. Once their squad leader had given the order everyone had gone into the maze trying to memorize anything that resembled a landmark. Once in Andrew began scanning for his other teammates believing that they would have a better chance if they managed to all go in together rather than slowly be picked off by the non-lethal defenses. As he ran through the maze he saw a group of combat robots along with two turrets that immediately began shooting low level laser weaponry at him.

He rolled away from them hoping that the tracking system wasn't as decent as the weaponry. But no such luck the turrets tracking programs didn't have any lag or limit to them. Andrew was about to send out a warning to the rest of the team when Kath sent_ "Careful the turrets are shooting lasers so they will burn like a bitch if you get hit by em"_

"_Little late on that one Kath but thank you"_ Andrew remarked dryly as his hand curled into a fist and both turrets were instantly crushed by Andrew's telekinesis. He then made a sweeping motion with his hand and the bots that were steadily closing in on him were sliced in half by the waist area.

He continued onwards towards what was hopefully the heart of the maze all the while he heard Lio repeatedly sending "Crap" over and over again, the guy seemed to be having another one of his odd moments and probably wasn't going to be much help right now.

Tosh continued through his portion of the labyrinth and came across a sharp turn he approached it along the wall and looked around eyeing several destroyed combat bots and turrets that Tosh had already destroyed earlier, 'Didn't I already come through here?' he thought in frustration before he rubbed his temples in frustration,

"_Okay everyone let me know the route you've taken I can build a map and figure out something so that we can get out of this mess"_ Tosh ordered before he saw what looked like a map of the maze in front of him along with the routes and the people who were going through them.

He saw that Kath, Nova and Andrew were near each other so it would make sense for them to link up and try to find a way into the center of the maze where they would flip the switch and complete the exercise.

He noticed that Lio was coming up on a fork in the maze _"Lio you're about to come up to a turnoff take the route to you're right you should be able to link up with Aal" _he sent out_ "Got it, got it got it"_. Lio followed Tosh's order albeit after he almost got lost a few times and turned right and kept running until he saw Aal fending off ten combat bots and turrets.

Lio then influenced the bots and turrets to destroy each other and sure enough the machines began to open fire on each other. Unfortunately thirty more bots and turrets came out of hatches in the walls and due to the large number Lio couldn't hope to influence all of them.

"Ah fuck" Aal muttered before he engaged his opponents along with Lio. "_Hey guys I could use a little help here"_ Kath sent out and she seemed slightly panicked. Gabriel noticed that there were two people near Kath's location, Nova and Andrew. _"Andrew take the next right where you're running and you should take you to Nova_ _so link up with her and make your way to Kath and then head for the center"_

Andrew made his way around the corner like Tosh had said and saw a group of combat bots opening fire with projectile weapons built into their arms. The projectiles in question were merely plastic bullets, the rounds weren't fatal but they would cause some slight bruising in the area that they hit.

Andrew ran up to one of them and jumped onto it's shoulders and began to pull on its neck joints and with a little added telekinetic force he pulled the head clean off the bot's shoulders before jumping off watching the machine dance wildly about continuously shooting everything in a vain attempt to hit the ghost trainee.

He put the headless robot out of its misery by repeatedly slamming it into a turret destroying both the machines. He then heard a clanking noise behind him but before he could so much as turn around he heard a loud crash and saw that the bot had been crushed. He turned back around and saw Nova with a clenched fist _"Thanks for that Nova"_ he sent _"C'mon Kath still needs some help"_

The two ghost operatives continued to make their way towards Kath destroying anything that tried to get in their way. However as they went the enemy forces began to multiply exponentially and it soon became obvious that they weren't going to reach Kath anytime soon. Tosh noticed this and began to make his way towards the shut off switch.

"_Nova you go and head for the shut off switch, Andrew you go and help Kath"_ Tosh ordered. Nova gave a nod acknowledging the order and ran for the off switch while Andrew headed for his comrade.

Tosh meanwhile was also making his way towards Lio and Aal destroying any combat bot and laser turret that he came across. Eventually he saw the two of them barely holding out against the turrets and bots. Tosh telekinetically slammed two of the bots into each other repeatedly until nothing remained of them but scrap metal.

The shards of what remained of the bots then flew in all directions where the remaining combat bots and turrets were. The chunks of metal fulfilled their job admirably the tore the turrets and mechs to shreds. Another batch of combat bots and turrets were about to come out of the wall but all of the sudden, the bots and turrets slumped to the ground and the maze lit up.

"_Good job Nova"_ Andrew sent to the blonde telepath who smiled almost warmly at the compliment. Once the team had managed to get out of the maze they were ordered to the preceptors office where they would once again get their ratings. Lio scored a pitiful twenty percent which was ten percent higher than his previous score and although it was an improvement the score was still rather pitiful.

Aal had a forty five percent which was thirty five points better than how Andrew and most of the other members of Blue team had thought, Kath, seventy five, Andrew eighty, Tosh ninety and Nova scored another ninety five percent once again. Nova and the rest of Blue team left the office most of them were rather happy that their exercise was completed. As everyone walked out they saw Red team and they were all glaring at their rival team almost angrily but they didn't say anything knowing that the opposite team didn't do much to warrant that kind of badmouthing, even the normally loud mouthed Dylanna didn't say much which managed to give Cole a small amount of relief as he really wasn't in the mood for that girl's bullshit.

* * *

Since the classes at the academy and everyone was now free to go wherever they wished in the facility as long as it wasn't anywhere that was restricted. Such as the lower levels where they did all of their neural resocializing to academy graduates and those who had been getting ideas about leaving the academy. Fortunately for him however, Andrew had been trained by some old friends of his to successfully shield all of his thoughts from others.

Eventually this skill evolved to the point where he could be thinking traitorous thoughts about brutally murdering the leader of the Dominion in the most sadistic and despicable of ways and most of the trainees and even some of the more powerful Ghosts in the Dominion wouldn't be able to even guess what it was that was going on inside of his mind.

Andrew gave a quiet yawn. It had been a long day and now the ghost trainee wanted nothing else but to go back to his bunk put on his psi-screen and head back to bead but he still had to finish a few things first before going to bed. He headed back to his room and was thinking about trying to hack into the academy's mainframe to find out where a certain trainee that had recently been causing quite a stir back out on most of the Dominion's core worlds and hell even a few of the fringe worlds, was located but he quickly decided against it.

Even though Andrew had some experience on hacking into computers it was only to a certain point. He knew that Sparky would more than likely find out about his investigations and inform the people in charge of this hellhole what he was up to and he'd probably be branded as a terrorist and sent off to New Folsom or just summarily executed for treason against the Dominion's government or perhaps even both.

No he had to find someone with some decent tech skills that would help him log into the mainframe with absolute impunity and he instantly knew just the person to ask for that kind of help but the main problem was giving the guy a reasonable excuse that would make sure that he wouldn't ask too many questions and he definitely had to make sure that Tosh didn't find out, he was a decent person but that guy was a hardcore Dominion supporter that came close to bordering on obsession.

Andrew stifled a yawn. The trainee would have figure out how to convince Lio in the morning. Right now he needed to get some rest. He put on his psi-screen and got into his modest bed and quickly fell asleep wondering what tomorrow would bring him and his teammates.

To be continued


	2. Performances

StarCraft Ghost Warrior

Chapter 2

Performances

Disclaimer: I do not own Starcraft or any of its storyline or characters, that right belongs to Blizzard however I do own Andrew Cole and whoever else I create for this story which is used to promote it.

"Dialogue"

'_Thoughts'_

"_Thought Sending"_

* * *

-Ghost Academy, Gym-

* * *

A new day had dawned over the academy and around fifty trainees were all gathered in the gymnasium and each one of them were fitted with a single psi-screen. About fifty of the Ghost Academy's trainees were standing in front of their gym instructor, a preceptor by the name of Hartley who was a marine sergeant who had recently been reassigned from his previous posting to the Ghost Academy to help the Ghost trainees train themselves in close quarters combat.

The sergeant had made it completely obvious on numerous occasions whether it be in his thoughts or aloud that he clearly didn't like having to be away from the frontlines to do "babysitting duty" as he had called it and made his displeasure known whenever possible to the trainees as well as using them as a means to vent out his frustrations with every opportunity that had been made available to him.

Although Hartley was normally very rough towards the trainees he was still a fairly good instructor and when his students did well they were rewarded. But when they were sloppy and weak, he punished them, very severely in most cases during his lessons, usually he make them his personal test dummies for many different kinds of self defense demonstrations.

"Does everyone here have their psi screens on?" he demanded in a voice that bordered on yelling at them. All of the Ghost trainees in the room quickly gave an affirmative "Yes sir!" to the man without any hesitation. Hartley narrowed his eyes and gave a nod. The sergeant then slowly walked up to each of them and glared at the trainees in the front row as if he was inspecting them for any unseen flaws that only a trained soldier would notice.

Hartley continued his way down the first row, slowly looking over each and every trainee in the room but he stopped at Andrew Cole who suddenly had a very bad feeling as to what it was that Hartley was planning for him.

The preceptor was more than likely going to use Cole as the test dummy for his class like he did one other time before. A couple of weeks ago Andrew hadn't been paying much attention to Hartley and he quickly paid for his lack of attention when Hartley beat the living crap out of him as a 'demonstration' for the rest of the class. So Andrew quickly readied himself for a physical blow so that he could at least try and ward off the majority of the punches and kicks from the preceptor.

however the assault never came. Instead preceptor Hartley just gave him what Andrew felt was supposed to be an intimidating stare for a few moments longer before the marine marched right on over to another trainee that was standing just a few meters to Andrew's left.

This unfortunate victim was a boy that Andrew didn't know or even recognized as he had never really seen him around before and quickly assumed him to be a transfer from one of the other academies that the Dominion had set up. The boy looked to be about sixteen or maybe even seventeen years of age. Hartley's latest victim appeared to be bored out of his mind and he didn't seem to be paying much if not any attention to the preceptor who wasn't too pleased with how the trainee was behaving.

It was an extremely foolish move on that boy's part that almost bordered on complete and utter stupidity. Anyone who had even half an iota of common sense in them would tell you to pay extra attention in preceptor Hartley's classes. It was something of an unspoken yet somehow well known law of the Ghost Academy.

Once Hartley had walked up to the boy his arm shot out and tightly grabbed the boy's throat and proceeded to choke him for a second and a half before the sergeant threw the boy against the padded wall. While this was happening everyone else in the room just continued to look on, not willing to help the poor boy out of fear of bringing about preceptor Hartley's wrath on the rest of them.

The unfortunate victim made a very feeble attempt to fight back as he could barely so much as raise his fists in what Andrew thought was supposed to be a defensive stance becasue of the pain in his throat. The poor bastard then received a quick yet brutal punch to the face that caused him to reach for the area that had been struck and cover it protectively while he crouched down a little bit.

This was also a very bad mistake as Hartley stood over him and yelled "Get up!" in an eerily similar tone of voice that reminded Nova of the late crime lord that had been known as Fagin say to her several times during her six month stay in the Gutter of Tarsonis. An experience that she had hoped to forget once she finished the Ghost academy and got the resocialization procedure that all trainees had to go through after graduation that would also make their loyalty to the Terran Dominion no less than absolute.

The trainee tried to get up off of the floor but the sergeant slammed his knee into the boy's stomach knocking what wind was left out of him and he was sent plummeting to the floor in a heap. Hartley looked at the boy with contempt at his attitude.

"Get up!" he ordered once again and the boy slowly did what he was told "You always get back up when you get knocked down understand!" Hartley yelled almost directly in the boy's face "Yes…sir…" the trainee managed to gasp out in between thick and heavily ragged breaths as the poor boy attempted to return a decent amount of air to his lungs.

Completely ignoring the suffering trainee, Hartley turned back to the rest of the class "There's a proverb dating back to ancient Japan back on good ol' Earth, seven times fall down eight times get up" he explained looking at the other trainees before he continued.

"Now there are two parts to self defense, number one: don't get hit and number two: hit back ten times harder than the guy who was trying to hit you!" Hartley yelled before wlaking up to each of the trainees once again. Hartley passed both Cole and Nova as well as several others a few times but then without any warning the instructor threw his fist at Kath as hard and as fast as he possibly could.

At the last second Kath managed to side step the attack and grabbed Hartley's arm with the intention of dislocating the limb it but she was too slow as the instructor almost casually flipped her over onto her back.

"Not bad trainee but you need to follow through with your attacks and not hesitate" he said before he turned to another student, the newest member of blue team; Aal Cistler and threw a quick punch at him.

Cistler almost effortlessly parried the blow with his left arm and counter attacked by attempting to punch the man in the face. Unfortunately Hartley had managed side step Aal's punches, none of which were even able to could even land on his target.

Aal fell back a little bit expecting the man to go on the offensive but instead Hartley relaxed his stance and let out an amused chuckle.

"Not bad trainee Cistler, not bad at all" the way that Hartley had said it sounded almost complimentary and Andrew wasn't entirely sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing for everyone else that was still in the room. Andrew's fears that it was bad for everyone else were quickly realized once Hartley turned back to face the rest of them. the preceptor then yelled in that same booming voice that he always had in him "Now I want all of you worthless maggots on your stomachs right now!" the marine sergeant barked and the trainees instantly did just that and got on their stomachs not wanting to risk the sergeant's wrath.

"Now each and every god damned one of you will do fifty pushups on your left fist and once your done with those, you'll do another fifty on your right. Those who aren't able to complete this exercise will do an additional fifty on each hand until they have finally managed to finish!" he yelled seconds before he signaled them to get started.

Everyone began just as they were told and after the first fifty Andrew soon felt the urge to just fall down onto the floor and die from the amount of punishment that he was taking, but he kept going at it despite his arms demanding a break . A couple of the trainees had fallen to the ground before doing so much as half of their fifty and were naturally assigned an additional fifty pushups on each fist by Hartley as a punishment.

Andrew however did his best to ignore them and continued on doing the push ups as he was instructed. And it seemed that Nova and the other members of blue team had the exact same idea as well since saw them out of the corner of his eyes. Nova and the others were just focusing on doing as they were told and they didn't stop or hesitate even once.

Eventually though all of the trainees managed to finish the pushups and they were all exhausted to say the least. All of them were probably going to wake up in the morning with sore arm muscles. Preceptor Hartley looked over at them and then his watch, the class had only a few seconds remaining so he might as well let his victims go, for now at least.

"Alright tomorrow we'll be working on more self defense moves. Oh, and unless you want to repeat today's lesson I highly recommend that you all double time it for your next classes before I decide to have everyone still here repeat today's lesson!" he ordered and everyone that was in the room instantly picked up the pace as much as their aching muscles would allow them to move as they did not want to repeat the day's physical education lessons that they had just been forced to go through.

Thankfully for blue team and several other trainees, it was now time for their lunch break which would last a total of forty five minutes which allowed them to rest their aching bodies for a little while, giving them some much needed time to prepare for their next classes.

Unfortunately most of the other students in the facility weren't as fortunate as Nova's team and a few others and instead had no other alternative but to head immediately to their next classes with no break of any kind. When those poor unfortunate souls made it to their next class the preceptors in change of their classes could easily deduce that they had just gotten out of the physical education portion of their day.

The handful of preceptors that actually gave a damn about their students wellbeing knew that there wasn't much they could do about Hartley's almost medieval methods of getting the trainees into shape other than simply write up a complaint report to the superintendent of the facility. the superintendant who was named Sarco Angelini, repeatedly or sometimes even to the director Bick who was the head of the training portion of the Dominion's Ghost program requesting that one or even both of them either try and have him limit some of his more extreme training methods or perhaps even transfer him to somewhere else.

This didn't work however as there were barely even a handful of marines of Hartley's caliber who were actually willing to transfer to the Ghost academy due to the near universal distrust that Dominion marines had of ghost operatives in general. With that said Hartley was able to carry out his training methods with near absolute impunity. However at least he wasn't as bad as some of the more overzealous PE instructors that other academies sometimes had.

Nova was currently headed into the main library. After Hartley's little torture sessions she normally headed there in order to find some peace and quiet as well as to relax her aching muscles for a while before heading to her next classes. As she walked there she thought she saw the same boy looking at her from the other side of a sliding glass door that led into another classroom that was unoccupied at the moment.

The boy ran off and she opened the door only to find that he was gone _'Okay this is starting to get a little weird'_ she thought to herself taking one last look around the classroom but of course she didn't find anything. Hell there wasn't even a single thought emanating from that particular area so it was probably just her imagination.

She then turned around and continued on her path to the library unaware that the little boy continued to watch her hoping that she might be the one that would help him get out of the place that he had been locked up in for over a month.

* * *

-Library-

* * *

Nova had always enjoyed going to the library during this time of day since it was a confirmed "Quiet zone" for her which meant that most people in the library didn't talk much and worked on their own projects that their preceptors had given them in peace.

If one was a telepath all they would need to do in a packed yet quiet library would be to simply put on a psi-screen and then enjoy the relative peace and quiet of the room. Today however it seemed as though that she wouldn't be needing to put on that psi-screen after all.

As she walked through the main entrance of the library she heard someone speaking by one of the many computer terminals that were scattered throughout the room "Spell, element" ordered one of Sparky's drones that was hovering nearby a twelve or thirteen year old girl with mid-length blond hair that was put into two pigtails.

The girl put on a thoughtful look for a moment before speaking "E-l-l, wait one L right?" she asked the floating robot that was built in the shape of a baseball with camera's stuffed into it "Correct" the machine confirmed "E-l-e-m-e-n-t" she said before the small floating machine apparently noticed Nova's presence in the room and it turned its mechanical eye to look directly at the ghost in training, startling her a little.

"Is there something that you require, trainee?" it asked with its normally dull and lifeless tone and caused the girl who was sitting there to turn and look at the one who had been watching them.

Nova immediately tried to cover her tracks by saying "Oh no I was just looking for something, I'll just leave now" she said as she began to walk away before the girl perked up.

"Wait you're Nova right?" she said sounding almost like a fan when they met some celebrity in a place that they didn't expect them to be.

Nova blinked "You know me?" she asked knowing that she hadn't met this girl before just this moment and Nova would have felt the girl try and scan her mind if she got it out through telepathy. Much to Nova's confusion the girl still seemed quite perky "Well yeah, I mean almost everyone here knows who you are Nova, you're a PI10 (Psi Index 10)" she elaborated.

The older girl made an 'Ah' sound understanding. PI10's were very few and far between despite the fact that Dominion Wranglers were almost constantly looking for 'new recruits' for the Ghost Academies but she didn't know that just because she was a level ten she'd be some kind of a local legend because of it.

Nova looked over at the computer screen and wondered just what Delta was doing but the younger girl quickly answered Nova's unasked question "I'm preparing for a test and afterwards Preceptor Sharben will finally put me on a team!" she said.

Although Nova never had any kind of actual contact with Preceptor Sharben it was widely known amongst the other trainees that she assigned very difficult written work for her students to complete and had a zero tolerance policy for any kind of disruptive behavior which to Sharben could be something as simple as accidentally dropping a writing utensil onto the floor which could result in serious drop in a trainee's grade during that particular class.

"So Delta, what kind of test is it that your-" Nova started to ask but a vision quickly flashed into her mind.

* * *

_A six and a half year old Delta Emblock was looking over her mother in a small rundown hovel in New Sydney while her father was on the same side holding the woman's hand giving the woman as much comfort as he could. _

_Her mother was very pale and had dark circles under her eyes giving the appearance that she was very weak making it easy for Nova to surmise that the poor woman was now on her death bed. Tears began to well up in Delta's eyes and she started to cry while her mother managed to give her a weak smile before gently caressing her daughter's face. _

"_Hey sweetie don't cry, everything will be alright" her mother tried to assure but Delta just continued to sob "I don't want you to go mommy, please don't leave me" she begged before her mother made soft shushing sounds. _

"_It's alright I'll be…watching over you from heaven…I'll always love the…both of you…" Delta's mother trailed off as she closed her eyes never to open them again. _

_Delta's father embraced the young girl while she cried out._

_The next few memories weren't as disturbingly vivid as the previous ones but they were still disheartening. Delta's father quickly fell into a deep depression and quickly used up most of the family's money drinking his sorrows away. As time went on Delta never learned how to read or write. She never went to any sort of school and the only future that she could've hoped for was to become a worker drone at the factories that were scattered all over the planet. _

_Then the wrangler came along and saved her. He took Delta away from that wretched place and gave her some hope for a brighter future._

* * *

Nova came out of the haze that she was in when she accidentally accessed the twelve year olds memories. Delta had a somewhat depressed expression that looked as though she thought that Nova would make fun of her because of her situation. However Nova gave the girl a sympathetic look, she knew full well what it was like to lose a parent and did her best to comfort the poor girl.

"I heard about what goes on in New Sydney, you were lucky to get out alive. It's not your fault you can't read or write" she said consolingly.

Before she could continue to talk and attempt to apologize for unintentionally going into the girl's memories without her consent Delta enveloped Nova into a hug. This caught the older telepath completely off guard, Nova honestly wasn't expecting that from the girl.

"Thanks Nova, everyone always makes fun of me when they find out that I can't read" Delta admitted. Eventually the shorter girl separated with the older Ghost trainee. Quickly deciding to change the subject Nova asked "So about this test do you need any help studying?"

Delta also eager to get off of that kind of subject quickly returned to her peppy self "Actually I would like some help on this" she said while rubbing the back of her head sheepishly.

The two then got to work on the computer.

* * *

-Ghost Academy Mess Hall-

* * *

Tosh and Kath were sitting down at one of the tables in the cafeteria eating their lunch in piece until their newest team member sat down next to them. Aal gave them both a toothy grin and said "Why, hello there teammates" he said in an upbeat tone. Kath instantly rolled her eyes in annoyance at Aal's antics, she didn't need telepathy to know what was going on in that loser's mind.

Tosh however just raised an eyebrow not buying the guy's act for so much as half a second "Oh, so _now_ you're a teammate?" he asked his voice was thick and heavy with sarcasm. Aal however didn't seem to mind this and simply just shrugged "I always was" he insisted before looking directly at Kath with a look in his eyes that told both Tosh and Kath where he was going with this.

"And might I say Kath you are one amazing looking woman" he said which made Kath roll her eyes at their newest member once again "Yes, if you _really_ must say it" she said already knowing what this guy was trying to do and she didn't want anything to do with an idiot like him.

"Oh come on" said Aal a little more than disappointed with Kath's reaction and quite frankly a little surprised. After all if he couldn't attract a woman with his rugged good looks then they would usually hook up with him because of his dad's vast, seemingly endless bank account.

Kath then scoffed at Aal and said "You think you're hot stuff just because your dad's some hot shot Finance Minister?" she asked. Aal no longer looked disappointed instead he seemed rather miffed.

"Excuse me?" he said arching a brow not really getting where Kath was going with this. Kath just ignored Aal and continued "Sorry but there's no real excuse for you mister: 'I'm the son of a finance minister'" she rebuffed before she continued on with her tirade.

"I'll let you know that I happen to be the daughter of one of the executive vice presidents of the Kal-Bryant mining conglomerate on Pridewater. And just so you know, I've been with a lot of boys that were a lot more powerful and quite frankly better looking and much more interesting than you" she sniped while Aal just leaned back and put his arms behind his head in a relaxed motion while he gave a snort in disbelief at Kath's claims.

"More powerful and better looking than me? Hah I seriously doubt that" Aal remarked with a light chuckle, he wasn't going to allow anybody to bruise his ego that easily.

Kath simply ignored him "Secondly once you're here it doesn't make a difference who you are. Doesn't matter who your daddy is or who mine is or Nova's was. Because when this is all over we're all brain-panned. If we were back on Pridewater I wouldn't be caught dead being anywhere near a guy like Lio or Cole.

After all Lio's uncle is some kind of a computer tech at the conglomerate I'm the daughter of an executive and who knows who Cole's family was cause he sure as hell hasn't told us anything. But here each and every one of us is equal because when you're finished here they're going to brainpan each and every one of us unless of course you flunk out which makes you less then nothing"

Now Aal looked more than just a little irritated with Kath's tirade "And personally I'm giving you six weeks at the maximum before you either end up dropping out or flunking out" Kath explained before she got up out of her seat and began to walk away "Now if you'll excuse me Tosh I think that I've lost my appetite"

Once Kath had left hearing distance Aal scoffed as he munched down some of the food that he had been given "Stupid bitch doesn't even know what she's talking about" he said.

"Excuse me?" asked Tosh not really understanding what it was that Aal was talking about while doing his best to ignore the "bitch" comment the asshole had made just a few moments earlier.

Cistler just shrugged after he finished swallowing the food that was in his mouth "Well come on I mean it's not like they brainpan everybody in this place, right?" he asked. Tosh just looked at Aal and wondered how that idiot had managed to come to that conclusion.

It was time to give Aal Cistler a good old fashioned dose of reality. Tosh looked Aal dead in the eye as he said his next sentence "Actually they do, it's a strictly enforced academy policy"

Upon hearing that revelation Aal's face instantly took on a completely shocked expression "But that's completely nuts I mean I could see them doing that to someone like Lio but-" the boy started before being cut off by Tosh who now no longer had that normally friendly aura about him and was now deathly serious.

"I'd sooner be doing that to someone like you than Lio" he said pointing his spoon at Aal with an accusatory tone. "Lio's loyal to the program but you, you're carrying around daddy's luggage and that can't be happenin, you're going to be fighting the good fight for the Dominion and that means that you ain't just gotta be a Ghost first and you gotta be a Ghost only. You get me stud?" asked Tosh.

A frown spread over Aal's normally smug demeanor who then just stood up and said "You know what suddenly I'm not feeling all that hungry either" before leaving the cafeteria leaving Tosh alone with the food on his tray.

* * *

The withdrawals that Lio was getting had been starting to get even more intense every second that the trainee went without administering his precious Hab. Lio's face was even more pale than it normally was and his eyes occasionally darted around his surroundings as though he had suspected that someone had been stalking him and that the one who was doing it could appear anywhere at any given moment.

Back home he had been introduced to the drug known as Hab at the tender age of nine, his family gave it to him whenever Lio had any kind of a problem. If he got bullied he'd have some Hab and feel better, if had been hurt either emotionally or physically he'd have some Hab. The list of reasons or excuses as to why he had been taking the drug were practically endless.

Here however Lio was now all but completely cut off from a fresh supply except through one single supplier who could be incredibly unreliable at times. And once again Lio found out that the Hab that Kam had managed to order for him was going to be stalled for at least another couple of days if not weeks.

The reason for this was that some big shot senator or someone else who was really important had been making a campaigning trip to Canis which also happened to be Kam's only known source of Hab which meant that security at the spaceports had been considerably tightened making it impossible to make a smuggling run for the bald drug addict.

Lio continued to walk down the corridors of the academy too engrossed in his own thoughts about his Hab to notice that someone had been walking right behind him for the past couple of seconds. When Lio felt a finger lightly tap his shoulder the poor guy practically jumped clean out of his skin in surprise.

The scatterbrained geek turned around and saw that Andrew was standing right in front of him with a questioning look and a raised eyebrow as well as a psi screen attached to him as he normally did when he wasn't in class.

"Are you alright Lio? You seem a little pale…and kinda jumpy?" Andrew asked noticing Lio's current state of being.

"I'm fine, I'm fine, I've just been having a hard time getting sleep lately that's all that's all, yeah, a hard, hard time sleeping" Lio said shaking his arms in front of him defensively. That explanation seemed to satisfy Andrew or at least it made him drop that subject.

"Okay, Lio I need you to do me a very _big_ favor" he said putting a heavy emphasis on the word 'big'.

Lio just blinked, Andrew had never asked for help from anyone if anything Andrew was always requesting if _he_ could help other members on his team if and when he noticed them struggling with something that is, if he was able to at least.

"Y-yeah, sure, yeah sure what is it you need?" Lio asked a little nervously. Andrew took a quick glance around the corridor before turning back to Lio and asked "Can we talk in someplace that's a little more private?" he asked.

Lio nodded and then took Andrew to where he and Kam usually met so that Lio could get his Hab. It was in one of the academy's blind spots so it was more than likely safe from any prying eyes and ears that were nearby.

"O-o-okay so what is it you need from me?" Lio asked nervously while still trying his best to shake off the effects of the Hab withdrawal, he didn't want to look like a complete and utter wreck in front of one of his teammates.

Andrew scanned the area to see if anyone was nearby and sighed, there was no going back now. "Alright but before I tell you what I need you to help me with you have to give me your word that you will _never_ under _any_ circumstances tell anybody, anything about what I'm going to say. Understand?" Andrew asked with a serious look on his face.

Lio now appeared to be even more nervous than he was earlier if that was even possible but nodded before he unconsciously let out the breath that he didn't even know that he'd been holding in.

"I need you to, and bear with me on this, get me unlimited access to Sparky's mainframe more specifically, personnel and trainee files without being detected" Andrew said very bluntly which immediately caused Lio's eyes to widen while his face just went paler than it already was.

Hacking into any Terran Dominion military computer mainframe was an almost always a capital offense. If any single one of the preceptors managed to catch wind about it they'd both probably be sent to New Folsom prison for the rest of their natural lives that is unless of course they weren't just executed after a speedy trial.

Lio was just about to say 'no' to his teammate and tell him to just forget that both of them had ever even had this talk but before he could say anything Andrew beat him to the punch.

"Look I know what your thinking, that you could get into some serious jail time for doing this to say the least but I really need this done, a friend of mine that was at the Dominion Ghost Academy on Korhal hasn't been returning any of my messages, hell I even tried to contact some of her preceptors but no one has responded for almost a month. I just want to see if she's alright that's all" Andrew explained with an almost pleading look in his eyes.

As Andrew stood there he hoped that Lio would buy into his little lie and although he hated himself for doing it he needed to get into Sparky's mainframe and Lio was the only sure way he could get in without being detected. The ghost in training just stood there and watched as Lio silently contemplated to himself what he was going to do.

As he waited for Lio to answer his question Andrew shortly contemplated taking off his psi screen that he had clipped on and reading the boy's thoughts but quickly shelved the idea. Lio would more than likely detect any sort of mind reading attempt and then Andrew would lose any chance that he had at enlisting Lio's aid if the boy thought that he couldn't trust him.

The next few seconds felt as though they took hours before Lio finally let out a bated breath and said "Alright, alright you've convinced me I'll help you, I'll help you" he said and Andrew gave out a sigh of relief. Things would run a lot smoother now that Lio would be getting him complete access to the systems.

"Alright then I'll meet me in my quarters in about four hours" said Andrew before he continued "I appreciate that you're doing this Lio" Andrew then patted Lio on the shoulder in thanks before the two parted ways.

* * *

-Ghost Academy Dorms-

* * *

A few hours later Lio had gone to Andrew's quarters just as the ghost trainee had requested and he knocked nervously on the door "H-hey Andrew it's me Lio man it's me Lio" he said before the door slid open and Andrew was right in front of the bald recruit.

"I was beginning to wonder if you had second thoughts about helping me with this" he said. Lio however just shook his head dismissively "It's no problem man, it's no problem besides you've helped me out too" he said remembering the times that he had helped the other members of the team with whatever they needed help doing as the guy entered the room and walked over to the terminal that was located nearby and began to go to work on giving it complete and unlimited access to the academy's systems.

Of course Lio wasn't permanently giving Andrew complete access after all if he kept it that way for very long someone was bound to notice what they were both up to and then they were both totally screwed. So once Andrew was in the system there would be a ten minute time limit before the terminal shut down and deleted all of its access history so that way no one would even come close to suspecting that any hacking had even taken place.

Lio continued to work on the terminal for a few moments more while Andrew just watched patiently from where he was standing watching Lio as he worked on the machine. Just a few seconds later Lio was finished with his work. As he got off of the seat that was placed in front of the terminal he looked over at Andrew who had a thankful look on his face "Thanks Lio I owe you big time" said Andrew but Lio just rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Nah, it's okay man, it's okay man, besides you've helped the rest of us out whenever we needed some help studying" Lio said before he remembered the time limit on the complete access that he had put on the terminal "Oh, oh I just remembered there's a time limit of about ten minutes on the amount of access that terminal has, so you should work fast, very fast" he explained.

"Thanks for the warning I'll be sure to heed it" said Andrew before Lio started to exit the room since his work had been finished and Andrew appeared that he wanted to make the search for his friend on his own.

Once Andrew was positive that Lio was far enough away from the area he quickly began to search through the student database which would include a list of any recent transfers to and from the academy so even if his target had been transferred someplace else he'd still be able to find out where he was headed or already was.

Unfortunately if that happened Andrew would have to leave the academy as quickly as he could and report back to his superiors. after a few more minutes of working on the terminal he finally found his target. A new 'recruit' by the name of Colin Phash, he was still being held in the research portion of the facility and now all that needed to be done was figure out a way to smuggle both himself and the kid out without getting acute lead poisoning in the process.

Andrew noticed that he only had less than two minutes left of complete access to the mainframe and quickly went to check if there were going to be any supply drops to the academy and much to both his surprise and delight there was a moderately sized cargo freighter class vessel that was making a supply run to the academy in a couple of days from now, and what made this even sweeter was the fact that the freighter had warp drive capability. It almost felt like the Dominion was handing him a free ticket out of this place.

However Andrew had to be very cautious, one small mistake one simple error and almost three months of blending in with the rest of the trainees would have all been for naught. Andrew then saw that he had only twenty seconds left of free access into the mainframe so he quickly deleted his login history and exited out of the mainframe before he turned the terminal off.

Andrew walked over to the small bed on the other side of the room and began to slowly start to doze off. Before he could manage to fall asleep his eyes shot open as he felt that someone nearby was currently all but broadcasting what it was that they were dreaming.

Briefly Andrew considered scanning the dream out of curiosity but decided that it would probably be for the best if he didn't, however the emotional maelstrom that the person was feeling made it practically impossible to not scan it without a psi-screen.

The Ghost trainee was seriously disturbed at what he was seeing. It was a much younger Nova she appeared to be no older than just fifteen years old. She was in some fancy looking room and was watching helplessly as both her parents and brother were being murdered right in front of her.

As the blonde girl sat their consumed with shock and horror at the fact that her parents had just been brutally killed right in front of her. Tears began to stream down her face as one of the terrorists took the same gun that had been used to murder Nova's family and walked over to her with a stony expression on his face. The man pointed the weapon right at Nova's face.

Before the man could even pull the trigger however Nova let out a traumatized scream and every person that was in a one mile radius died from a psionic blast unconsciously emitted by a grief stricken telepath. A couple of days later Nova found herself in the gutter of Tarsonis and was brought in by a crime lord that went by the alias of Fagin.

Fagin used her 'abilities' to root out dissenters and any undercover cops or moles for the cops that were in his organization and when she did, Fagin killed them and each and every time that occurred Nova's guilt grew more and more. She might as well have been pulling the trigger on those poor people that had been killed herself.

Nova wanted to die each time that she helped Fagin take a life but the crime lord wouldn't let her no matter how much she asked him to put her out of her misery. Things only got worse as time went on. Once Fagin realized just what Nova could do to his mind, Fagin somehow managed to get his hands on a psi-screen from a Confederate military base. This made the crime lord completely immune to Nova's telepathy. But the device was not without its consequences.

Normally psi-screens were only supposed to be worn for eight hours at a time or it would lead to memory loss, mental instability and neural degradation. Fagin had been keeping the psi-screen on himself for six whole months nonstop! Even after the Confederacy had finally managed to track Nova down and the wrangler Malcolm Kelerchian came to take Nova to the Confederacy's Ghost Academy but of course Fagin resisted and was killed by one of his own subordinates, by Nova's psionic suggestion of course.

The wrangler was going to take Nova away and eventually she would have her memories wiped. Nova needed this, that was why she worked so hard at everything. All she wanted was to forget absolutely everything that had happened to her over the course of those six months in hell.

Andrew pulled himself out of the dream and felt incredibly dirty for intruding on something so personal even if it was not intentional. Tears began to gather into his eyes. Andrew intruded in on something that was undoubtedly a private concern and he had no right to barge in on something like that. It was no wonder that Nova wanted to have her memory wiped clean, she didn't want to remember that in which she had seen and done two years ago. As he lied there Andrew resolved that the first chance he got he would apologize to Nova for his intrusion.

The spy continued to lay down in his bed and thought to himself, perhaps he should take Nova with him when he got Colin out of the Ghost Academy. She clearly didn't want to take innocent lives, which she undoubtedly would end up doing if she became a ghost operative and would do it without any kind of remorse or sympathy.

'_No'_ he thought, he wouldn't make that decision for her, when the time came he'd give her a choice between coming with him, or staying on her current path to become a Ghost.

As Andrew sat down on his bed he quickly decided that it would be for the best if he talked with Nova in the afternoon tomorrow after some of their classes had been completed.

To be continued


	3. Second Thoughts and Memories

StarCraft Ghost Warrior

Chapter 3

Second Thoughts and Memories

Disclaimer: I own nothing all characters belong to Blizzard, I only own my OC Andrew Cole

"Talking"

'_Thinking"_

"_Thought sending"_

A/N: in this fanfic Tosh doesn't have any strong feelings towards Nova beyond that of friendship

* * *

-Ghost Academy, Armory-

* * *

Nova along with the other members of Blue team were looking over several disassembled C-10 canister rifles which were the standard issue armaments for all ghost operatives that were placed out into the field. A disassembled canister rifle was neatly placed on a table in front of each of the trainees. Every single piece that went into and onto the rifle was laid out nice and neat on the table so it would be a little easier for someone to assemble it without having to look aimlessly through a disorganized pile of bits and pieces to find each one.

Preceptor Elena looked over at each member of Blue Team and said "All of you have a total of one minute and thirty seconds to completely assemble your C10 canister rifles" she explained. Before the exercise started however Aal seemed to be unusually nervous about what he was getting into.

"But I don't even know the first thing about-" Aal started to say before the preceptor cut him off with an almost casual wave of her hand.

"I'm sure that you'll perform this exercise just fine trainee Cistler, try and think of this as a kind of puzzle" she said not really sounding like she really had much faith in him not that any of the other members of Blue team did either.

"Now begin!" Elena ordered before those in front of her began to almost frantically assemble their rifles.

As Andrew worked on his weapon, the other members of Blue team had noticed that he seemed to be a little distracted so he was going much slower than he normally did while Aal just stood there looking at the various pieces of the rifle in front of him and muttered something along the lines of 'I don't do puzzles' to himself with a heavy frustration evident.

Lio however was doing the worst out of all of them. "No, maybe if I…no wait that won't work that won't work" he muttered nervously.

Although Lio was trying his best to assemble the C10, the rifle itself came to resemble something that looked like a half mangled piece of scrap metal rather than a weapon of war. Everyone else in the room also noticed the amount of sweat that was coming down his face almost profusely and Lio also had a bizarre twitch in his fingers which caused him to very nearly drop several vital pieces of the rifle.

Eventually the time limit that each recruit was given finally reached zero. "Cease" preceptor Elena ordered and Blue team stopped what they were doing almost immediately and put their assigned weapons back on their tables.

The preceptor walked up to each of the trainees and began to see how well they had done at their work. Tosh only needed to load the ammunition which was the same as Nova, Kath however needed to put on the main barrel as well as the sights and stock mechanism but other than that it was a relatively fine job.

Andrew's C10 was only halfway done with putting in the internals of the rifle and hadn't even started on the outer portions of the weapon yet. Aal had barely even started on his as most of the rifle was still in pieces while the internal parts of Lio's looked more like they were just shoved into the rifle without any thought if they went in there or not while the external ones were mismatched all over the weapon.

The preceptor looked over a the floating robot that was nearby "Sparky give them their ratings" she ordered while the floating eyeball like machine looked at each of the trainees.

"Fourth class trainee Lio Travski ten percent, forty percent reduction from previous rating of fifty percent" it said while Lio kept muttering crap over and over again as he normally did when he (And sometimes others) had felt that he had royally screwed up.

However the machine paid Lio no mind and continue to list the ratings "Fourth class trainee Aal Cistler, ten percent on first exercise, third class trainee Kath Toom sixty five percent, improvement of five percent over previous rating of sixty percent. Trainee first class Gabriel Tosh ninety five percent unchanged from last rating. Trainee fourth class Andrew Cole, fifty percent, twenty percent reduction from previous rating of seventy percent. Trainee fourth class trainee Nova Terra eighty five percent thirty percent increase from previous rating"

"Impressive Nova thirty percent in one week" the preceptor complimented before she turned to Lio who was twitching and sweating erratically. Elena looked at Lio's disheveled appearance raised a questioning eyebrow at the nervous wreck of a boy.

"Are you sure you're doing okay Lio?" she asked almost causing Lio to jump at the question.

"Fine, fine, fine, fine, fine. I just didn't sleep very well last night. Bad, bad, bad dreams" he said rapidly and almost incoherently. The preceptor didn't really look like she was buying into it but he was thankful that it seemed that she decided not to push the issue at the moment seeing as how this was neither the time nor the place to be questioning a trainee. Elena then looked over at Cistler and gave him a very contemptuous glance.

"And as for you Aal, culminating a lot of ten percents is a perfect way to flunk out of the program. And I seriously doubt that your daddy will like that very much. So I highly recommend that by the time we do this again next week, you get the hang of how a C10 rifle is properly assembled"

Kath watched the exchange incredibly amused with what was going on and tried her best not to get involved but she couldn't resist hitting Aal where it hurt most, his ego.

"Oh you'll have to forgive Aal ma'am, after all he had people that did puzzles for him when he was a kid" she remarked which caused the rest of the team save for Aal to start laughing at the guy's expense.

"Bitch" Aal grumbled quietly under his breath while the Preceptor looked over at the one who had been slighting Aal for the past several days.

"That's enough Kath, alright everyone, class is now dismissed" she ordered before they all exited the armory and headed off to do whatever it was they did in their free time. As Nova walked out she intended on helping Kath with assembling the C10 after dinner when she heard a voice from behind her, it was Andrew's voice.

"Hey Nova!" he called out causing the blond telepath to turn around and look right at Andrew who was standing behind her with a serious expression on his face.

"What do you need?" she asked and Andrew took in a deep breath which was a telltale sign that he was nervous about something.

"I need to talk to you in private for a moment, it's really kind of important" he said while Nova got a confused expression on her face but then decided what the hell.

"Sure I guess, just wait a second" she answered before turning to face Kath.

"Kath!" she called out making the dark skinned trainee turned around and ask "What?" in a neutral tone of voice.

"I think I figured out a faster way to assemble a C10, do you want to work on it later tonight?" she asked which gained a small smile from her teammate.

"Sure sounds good to me" she accepted almost finding it hard to believe that Nova was actually trying to help her out instead of just doing things on her own. Whatever it was that Andrew had told her the other day must have been something since she had been much more of a team player lately.

Her business now concluded Nova followed Andrew down one of the corridors to someplace where the two of them could speak in private.

* * *

"Yo, Lio wait up man!" Aal called out to the bald trainee while desperately trying to catch up with Lio who was heading down one of the academy's corridors desperately trying to shake off the withdrawal symptoms that were wracking his body almost every second of the day "What, what, what, what?" he asked in rapid succession all the while Aal noticed that Lio's twitching and sweating had started to increase exponentially.

"So what happened to your Hab supply?" he asked.

Lio got a look not to dissimilar to that with a person who had just been caught poking through the cookie jar. "What are you nuts?" Lio demanded trying and failing miserably to cover his tracks "That stuff is completely, thoroughly and totally illegal I'd never-" he started with an expression of complete panic on his face.

Aal just chuckled completely ignoring the denial that was spewing forth from Lio's mouth. "Lio I know Hab withdrawal when I see it, the wide eyes, the uncontrollable twitch, the sweating. And as for how I know it, well let's just say that I've indulged myself on such things on more than just one occasion" he said almost cracking up at Lio's expression as he heard Aal's almost nonchalant confession that he had used illegal drugs more than just one or two times.

However Lio was still adamant against admitting that he was still an addict "I have no idea what it is you're talking about" Lio said trying and failing to convincingly deny taking any sort of an illegal drug.

This was going to be so easy for Aal, now all he had to do was offer the poor sap a fix and then he'd end up as putty in Aal Cistler's hands. Aal then gave Lio an unconvinced shrug and spoke with a nonchalant tone.

"Whatever, blank out on me if you want, but all I'm saying is that I've got a very, very reliable source on Canis" he admitted. To say that this perked Lio's interest quite a bit would be an understatement but then remembered that there wasn't even the slightest possibility of any illegal substances getting on or off Canis due to the fact that some self important senator was going to be making a speech or something as equally important there.

"But Canis is clamped down on because of some senator" Lio responded stating his doubts but Aal just raised an index finger as he slowly started to walk down the corridor while Lio trailed behind him.

"Normally that would present quite the problem…_however_, my source is on the senator's personal staff" he elaborated.

Lio just looked right at Aal as though the man in front of him had just won well over a million credits at the lottery "Really, really, really?" he asked eyes going even wider than they were earlier as he hoped that Aal wasn't screwing with him.

"That would be yes to all three of those" Aal joked before he continued "As a matter of fact I can have a fresh supply of Hab for you here by tomorrow tonight. But first I need you to do me a _really _big favor" he said with a grin on his face.

Lio unfortunately had completely failed to notice the almost malevolent look on Aal's face since he was so ecstatic that he'd get a fix Lio didn't care what it was he had to do.

"Are you kidding me? You just name it!" Lio eagerly exclaimed feeling as though he could almost taste the Hab fix he'd be getting flowing right on through his veins.

"You know that uncle of yours who works over at the conglomerate?" Aal asked with an almost pompous smirk but Lio however was completely oblivious to it.

"Yup, yup, yup" he replied which simply confirmed that which Aal had already known.

The smirk on Aal's face got even wider that it almost reached his ears "Good I'm going to need him to do me one teensy little favor" he said rather ominously before he began to explain the details of what he needed to be done before the day's end.

* * *

Andrew meanwhile had led Nova down one of the corridors for a little while until they were just out of earshot of the rest of their team. The second that Andrew had stopped walking Nova looked at him with a questioning gaze wondering just what it was that he was doing. The ghost trainee let out a breath that he was unaware that he had been holding in.

"I scanned your dream last night" he admitted with an ashamed tone, which caused Nova's face to adopt a shocked expression but before she could say anything Andrew continued with his apology "And I sincerely apologize for that I didn't mean to intrude onto something that was _that_ personal" he explained.

Nova just stood there dumbstruck at what Andrew had just admitted. She did remember having vivid dreams about her days back in the Gutter of Tarsonis last night, after all it was an experience that most people wouldn't forget without a complete resocialization that the Ghost Academy gave when the recruits finally passed their training which had been one of the reasons that she was working so hard at becoming a Ghost operative.

But what Nova was focused on at the moment was the fact that one of her fellow teammates whom she had considered to be a good friend was now apologizing for doing what he felt to be an intrusion into something that was he believed to be private.

Despite what Andrew may have been thinking Nova wasn't angry with him. Truth be told she didn't really know how to feel about the situation "It's alright, besides I don't think that you meant to intrude" she said.

For most of the other telepaths in the Ghost Academy snooping into other people's thoughts was something just came natural for them. For a telepath reading other people's thoughts was sometimes as easy and unintentional as reading a book while looking over another's shoulder if the thought was broadcasted "loud" enough so to speak for others to hear.

Upon hearing her accept his apology, Andrew let out a small sigh of relief and responded "Thanks Nova it means a lot to me to hear you say that" he said with a warm smile causing Nova's cheeks to turn slightly red at that comment while Andrew continued to speak.

"Now obviously I can't tell you that I know exactly what it is you're going through. However I've lost several people that I had considered to be family as well, but when I remember them I try not to think about how they died but how they lived and all the good things that I remember sharing with them. Because if you remember them like that, it's as though they're never truly gone they're still with you, right here" he said pointing right above Nova's heart.

Nova was genuinely touched by the speech that Andrew just gave and for the first time in quite a while she honestly had no idea what to say. "Just think about what I've said but for now we've still got classes, so I'll just see you at lunch then?" he said to which Nova nodded in response not really knowing what else to say.

As Andrew walked off Nova just watched him walk from where she was standing almost lost in her thoughts.

* * *

-Cafeteria one day later-

* * *

After a long period of propaganda laced "history" with preceptor Soohoo the lunch portion of the day had finally began and many students were in the cafeteria so that they could get some food in their stomachs for lunch.

As Nova and the others continued to have their lunch they were all broken out of their thoughts by a loud girl shouting "I passed!" everyone stopped eating to go and look over at an ecstatic twelve year old girl with short blonde hair that was done into two pigtails running towards them.

Nova got out of her seat but before she could say anything the twelve year old continued "Thank you so much for your help Nova!" she exclaimed. Upon hearing the praise from the kid, Nova gave the girl a sincere smile.

"I told you that hard work pays off" she said before turning back to her teammates "Delta this is Blue team" she said before Delta looked at each of them as they introduced themselves to the kid.

After the introductions were finished Tosh remembered that he hadn't seen the girl on any of the other teams before. Curious the guy asked "So Delta, What team are you on exactly?" for a brief moment Delta looked a tad uncomfortable at the question. However she quickly regained her composure.

"Actually I'm not even on one yet I had to pass the literacy test first" she said a little more than embarrassed at admitting her disability in front of other people. The first one to respond was Aal who let out a condescending chuckle.

"You can't read and I thought that this place had standards" he mocked which caused Delta to lower her head in embarrassment. Once Kath saw this happen she immediately rose to the kid's defense and spoke up.

"Well they let an ass like you in so obviously they don't" she remarked and unlike several times before, this time Aal remained uncharacteristically nonchalant towards Kath's smartass remarks towards him instead of getting pissed and instead just shrugged nonchalantly still having that same smug grin on his face.

"Very funny Ms. Toom. Oh and by the way how's daddy doing?" he asked.

Kath looked confused at first when in the hell would Aal want to know about what was going on in her home life. True her dad hadn't been doing to well with his job but it wasn't any of Cistler's damned business.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" she asked her face going from confused to annoyed. Cistler tried to play innocent but everyone knew that he was just acting, badly.

"Nothing just curious is all" said Aal while shrugging nonchalantly.

Ignoring them Nova handed her newfound friend a tray that had a rather large sandwich on it who gazed at it for a second with a mixture of both hunger and happiness on her face "That's my favorite!" said Delta looking right at the sandwich with hungry eyes "How'd you-" she started but then realized that Nova was a class ten telepath "Oh yeah, that's right"

Upon hearing that statement Nova looked a little embarrassed that once again she had entered her new found friend's mind without her consent "Sorry about that" she said sheepishly.

"But it's hard to keep thoughts out my head, especially when you'd get hungry during our study sessions. I've been training with Preceptor Ryke to try and block out the thoughts of others" Nova explained but Delta didn't really seem to react as badly when Nova had unintentionally scanned the twelve year olds memories however.

The others went back to their lunches when Kath suddenly remembered something interesting, not once since Andrew had joined the academy had he worked with any preceptor on keeping the thoughts of others out of his head and she had heard that he was a PI-10 (Psi Index) just like Nova. Those types of telepaths usually had a difficult time controlling their powers but he never really seemed to have much trouble with it.

Curiosity driving her she looked directly at Andrew and who was eating the sandwich that was on his tray.

"Wait a sec, Andrew I heard that you're a class ten just like Nova and I've never heard of you once having to work with some of the other preceptors to keep other people's thoughts out of your skull. So how do you do it?" she asked hoping that he'd give them some kind of an answer this time rather than just dodging the question.

Not expecting that kind of question the piece of bread that Andrew had been chewing on went down the wrong pipe and he coughed for a few seconds. After he finished coughing he looked up from his lunch with a surprised look on his face. That question had definitely caught him by off guard. The Ghost trainee sputtered for a moment trying to find the right answer to his teammate's question and eventually he responded to the question.

"Well that's simple really, I don't really need to, I have my own ways of keeping the thoughts of others out of my mind and it works pretty well for me" he answered rather vaguely. Kath however wasn't giving up so easily and she could see that Nova and her newfound friend Delta were just as curious if not more so.

"Ah, come on at least tell us something. Who taught you how to do it?" she asked but Andrew just shrugged.

"I guess I just figured it out on my own, sorry but that's all there is to it" he explained although everyone could tell that there was more to it than just that simple little explanation. The Ghost trainee then took in a long deep breath.

"Now if you'll excuse me I'm suddenly not feeling all that hungry" he said letting out the breath that he was holding in and got up off of the seat that he was sitting on and walked out of the cafeteria. Delta looked at the rest of Blue Team and then asked "What's with him?" she asked curiously.

Tosh just shrugged, he was more than used to Andrew's evasiveness by now "Don't know kid, to be honest he's told us next to nothing about where he came from or even how it was that he got here, and every time we think that we've finally reached him, the guy just pulls farther and farther away from us" he explained.

Blue team's leader didn't understand it, they had known Andrew Cole for well over a month and they hadn't even found out where it was that the guy grew up, what his family was like or even if he had any friends that lived somewhere outside of the academy.

* * *

A few hours later after the small celebration that Blue team held had been completed and the classes over, Lio began making his way for Aal Cistler's quarters where his fellow trainee was supposed to hold up his end of the bargain and give Lio the Hab that he so desperately craved.

The withdrawal symptoms that he'd been getting were increasing in frequency and intensity. Now the bald trainee was almost constantly sweating and had an uncontrollable twitch in his fingers and eyebrows and his face was that of a nervous wreck.

Eventually Lio got to Cistler's quarters and he knocked on the door and waited a few seconds before hearing Aal's voice on the other side of the door say "The door's unlocked". the door hissed open and Lio saw that Aal was actually practicing his martial arts.

Anyone else would have expected that instead of practicing he would be in bed with one or even two girls however Lio wasn't concerned with what Aal was doing in his spare time at the moment. Instead all he was focusing on was finally being able to get some Hab in his system.

Once Lio had shut the door behind him Aal asked "What do ya need Lio?" he asked calmly although he already knew the answer to that question. The second that Aal was finished speaking Lio practically went crazy on him.

"NEED?" the bald Ghost trainee demanded while he grabbed Aal by his shoulders and started to shake him "I need Hab, Aal! You promised me, damn it that you'd-" he started before Aal finally managed to get free from the bald trainee's grasp.

"Wait chill out there a second Lio just wait a sec, alright?" he said before Lio did as he was told.

The Finance Minister's son gestured to a small table that was located at the center of the room where an injector that was normally used by combat medics in the field sat filled with a strange brown liquid.

"Behold the fruits of my labor and your patience" spoke Aal almost dramatically. Lio just looked at the device curiously. Whenever he had been given the drug it had almost always been in a cup rather than an injector.

"Uh, where's the Hab?" he asked picking the injector and examining it with curious eyes. "It's right there my friend, the contact I have always makes it prepackaged in the injector and ready for use. No loading it up, no preparation just inject and feel much better" Aal elaborated further.

Lio rolled up his sleeve and put the injector's needle into his left forearm and pushed down on the injection mechanism on the apparatus that sent the Hab flowing right into his veins with an almost inaudible swishing noise. As the liquid went from the injector and into his system Lio immediately began to feel better than he had for the last several days "Ah…finally" he said letting out a content sigh.

* * *

-Nova's quarters-

* * *

Nova was laying down in her bed while she continued to think about what it was that Andrew had said the other day. Sure Nova still continued to want the brain panning that would help her forget watching her parents getting murdered right in front of her and the six months of pure and complete misery that had ensued afterwards.

But whenever it was that she thought about all of those good, treasured moments that she had spent quality with her family even though they were very few and far between due to her parents' positions in the old Confederate government and her older brother doing his best to prepare for being the head of the family business, Nova found herself not wanting to go through with the brain panning procedure more and more for each and every moment that she remembered thinking about those kinds of memories, especially the ones at the Ghost Academy and some of the friends that she had made there, like Andrew, Kath, Delta and Tosh.

For some reason though having all of her memories of Andrew being wiped left a bitter and almost depressed feeling inside of her. Although she had only known him for a little over a month she considered him to be a very good friend who was one of the few people that hadn't been viewing her as some sort of a sex object like most of the other male trainees that were in the Ghost Academy. Instead Andrew was a kind and understanding person who always did his best to help those that were struggling around him.

Unfortunately like all of the other trainees she didn't have much of a choice other than to go through with the brain panning procedure that all trainees were forced to get once they had completed their training in the academy.

They wouldn't let her get a free pass just because she wanted to remember a few people that had started to become close to her in a very long time. Nova just wished that there was a way for her to keep those precious memories of both her family and friends that she had.

Nova shook herself out of those kinds of thoughts. She would never be able to get any sleep and be ready for the simulation training tomorrow if she kept thinking about the things that were inevitably going to happen in her life and decided to treasure the good times that were a part of her life while she could.

* * *

-The Next Day-

* * *

According to both Tosh who had told them of their mission and preceptor Elena who had confirmed it just a few minutes later, it was the Star Hopper mission again and although they were doing the same mission several things had changed such as the positions of the UED pirates, the amount of booby traps on the ship. One thing hadn't changed however and that was that the pirates were still using psi screens which made things all the more difficult for the group.

What was even worse was the fact that Cistler was on the team as well, despite the pointless hope that both Kath and Andrew had that something would happen that would make him unable to join in on today's mission. But it would appear they had little choice other than to go through with the mission with Aal working with them. Andrew then quickly steered his thoughts away from the pretentious jerk and turned his thoughts to his other teammates.

Lio looked a hell of a lot better than he had been for the last couple of days, instead of sweating constantly or twitching uncontrollably the guy seemed as though there was nothing wrong with him even though he did appear to be a little nervous which was normal for him. That was a very welcome change by the rest of his teammates as he had been lagging behind them ever since he started acting more strange than usual.

The other members looked determined to not only succeed but do better than they had since the last time that they tried it. Nova didn't look like she was going to run off on her own at all this time and instead was probably going to go along with whatever plan that Tosh had cooked up in his head.

"_Okay Blue team let's do this"_ he sent looking at the rest of the group assembled before him and then turned to the star hopper that was between twenty or thirty feet away from where their current position was.

"_Most of you know this scenario from last time. That over there's the imperial star hopper Valerian, and it's been captured by five UED pirates. Our orders are to go in and rescue the senator as well as three aides" _he explained before turning to face Kath and Andrew_ "Now the plan, Kath and Andrew will go in by the service entrance"_

"_Got it Tosh, we'll both be sure to check for booby traps"_ Kath replied while Andrew just nodded in response _"We all are gonna check this time around, just be alert they aren't in the same places that they were last time around"_ Tosh then turned his head and looked directly at the other tree members of blue team.

"_Lio this time you and I will both hit the cockpit together, Nova you go through the back again but this time take Aal with you"_ Tosh ordered to which Nova gave an affirmative before Tosh continued _"We're gonna attack from three sides but we'll hit 'em hard. Get in position and get ready. We all go in simultaneously in three minutes from now"_ everyone gave an affirmative response but Cistler who wasn't able to thought send.

Tosh turned to look directly at him and sent _"Hey you here me in there Aal?"_ he asked with a serious look. The finance minister's son's response was instantaneous.

"Yeah, absolutely, I was listening the whole time" he said. Kath rolled her eyes at Aal once again before sending _"You're supposed to thought send dumb-ass, oh wait that's right you can't do that properly 'cause you're completely useless"_ she mocked.

Aal looked like he was about to respond with a remark of his own when Tosh decided to play the peace maker between his two teammates _"Can it the both of you, we're going in now!" _he ordered and everyone sprinted towards their assigned locations.

Nova took point while Aal followed close behind. While they ran towards their assigned location Nova was inwardly wishing that somebody else had been sent along with her rather than Aal. At least they wouldn't stare right at her ass every once and a while. It took all of Nova's inner strength not to turn around and slap the pretentious ass right in the face but she just did her best to ignore it.

As if god himself had granted them a miracle Aal managed to pull his brain out of the gutter and ask "Hey wait a second how the hell are we supposed to get in through the exhaust shaft if they have psi screens?" he asked aloud since he lacked the psionic ability to send his thoughts into the mind's of others.

However Nova just ignored him and climbed up into the exhaust shaft all the while Aal was demanding an answer from Nova who then telekinetically tore open the grating that separated the exhaust shaft from the engines while Aal just looked on in amazement "Wait how did you-" he started to say but Nova cut him off _"Psi screens don't effect my ability to teek"_ she explained.

Aal had started to compliment her on how amazing that little talent of hers was when they both heard a gun being cocked right behind them. They turned simultaneously and saw a UED pirate aim his gauss rifle right at them with a wicked grin but before he could pull the trigger Aal slammed his elbow right into the man's face.

The blow probably broke the pirate's nose and it caused him to drop his weapon and reach up with his hands to cover the wounded appendage but before his hand's could make it to his face a lightening fast kick to the face sent the poor bastard sprawling onto the ground in a heap.

Once the UED pirate had fallen to the ground Aal turned his attention back to Nova and said "Well what are we waiting for, if we go in now we'll get the most points and-" he started but was cut off by Nova.

"_We go in when Tosh told us to which is in forty five seconds and not a moment before!" _she sent firmly cementing the fact that she wasn't going to run off on her own again or allow Cistler to do so either and fuck everything up.

As Kath slowly made her way through the vents while Andrew followed close behind her. Andrew noticed that she seemed to be a little distracted, primarily since there was something that was on her mind. Last night when her dad sent her one of his weekly holo messages to her.

Her father had confided in her that there had been some accounting irregularities with the conglomerate and they were now being investigated by Finance Minister Cistler and the rest of his lackeys. Although Kath's father did his best to try and put on a confident front Kath knew him well enough that he was very worried about what was happening there.

Seconds later she was brought out of her thoughts by what sounded like white noise but only if it was going on inside her own mind. She instinctively put her hands to her head in an attempt to block out the noise for a second or two before it stopped.

"_You doing okay Kath?"_ her teammate sent worriedly. Kath noddedbefore proceeding to move over as much as possible so that they could both get clear shots when she opened the ventilation duct.

_"From the amount of psi screen interference I think that there're a couple of guards right outside this shaft"_ she warned. They got their weapons ready and proceeded to wait until the synchronized strike was scheduled to begin.

It was a long thirty seconds but once the timer hit zero. Once the timer did both Kath and Andrew burst through the ventilation shaft that they were in and in half a second they blew the brains right out of the two UED pirates that were nearby and once they had finished falling to the floor the muffled sounds of C10 canister rifle fire erupted from nearby before falling silent. Seconds later the doors to the room that Kath and Andrew were in opened and the rest of their team came in.

The last one to walk in was Lio who stopped before he could fully enter the room. Lio's eyes widened almost to the point where his eyeballs looked like that they would fall right out of their sockets if they went any wider. The boy's veins were also starting to pulsate up against his skin.

Lio began to clutch at his sides like he was freezing cold and doing his best to keep warm while he muttered "Get em off of me" under his breath however no one could hear him because they were too busy trying to confirm that they had managed to kill off all of the pirates before they went and made sure that the senator and his Aides were safe and sound.

However they were alerted to Lio's condition less than a moment later.

"GET THEM OFF ME!" the boy screamed at the top of his lungs while pieces of the ship began to come off of the walls and started to fly everywhere. Everyone turned and saw how crazed Lio was looking.

Nova immediately recognized what it was that was going on with Lio and without a second thought, ran straight up to the poor boy and told him that he needed to calm down and that he was hallucinating.

However Lio was too caught up in his own hallucinations to even hear a word of what Nova was trying to tell him. Seeing that her attempts at trying to verbally snap Lio out of it Nova then attempted to knock him out by telepathically telling the boy's brain that he needed to sleep for a while. Surprisingly it worked and Lio was out like a light bulb.

Still holding Lio up Nova turned to face the rest of the team "Someone get a god damn medic in here!"

* * *

-Ghost Academy, Medical Wing, a few minutes later-

* * *

A few minutes later Lio was lying down on a bed still unconscious and according to the nurse wouldn't be up for several hours at the bare minimum. Superintendent Sarco Angelini marched straight into the medical wing carrying with him a calm and composed demeanor despite the fact that one of the trainees in the academy that he was in charge of had come dangerously close to dying. Nova wondered why the man was so calm over something that was _that _serious. He almost looked as though he had been expecting something like this to occur.

The nurse that was on duty walked up to the superintendent and began to explain the situation to him. "Sir it appears as though trainee Travski had recently injected himself with a massive dose of Turk but I had also found large traces of Hab in his blood too" she explained handing over the clipboard that contained the lab results. As superintendent Sarco looked over the reports for little more than a moment or two he seemed completely impassive.

"How long will mister Travski be out like this? I need to know where exactly he got those drugs" he asked and the nurse sighed.

"I gave him a moderate sedative so it'll probably be at least another four hours before the Turk finally wears off but I plan on keeping him here for observation overnight at least to make sure that all of the drug has been completely drained out of his system" she explained.

"Very well then" he said before looking right over at Nova and said "Am I correct to assume that you were the one whose quick thinking saved mister Travski's life?" Sarco asked.

Not wasting any time Nova responded "Yes sir I recognized the effects of the Hab/Turk combo and I did what I felt was needed in response" she explained as a matter-of-factly.

Sarco however still appeared to be dispassionate about the situation "I'm going to need to debrief you myself, if you'll come with me please" he said walking towards the door to which Nova reluctantly followed.

Unbeknownst to either of them however someone had been listening in on their entire conversation by teeping Sarco's thoughts, apparently the Ghost Academy's Superintendent had many cracks in the shield he used to guard his thoughts and a certain individual knew exactly what was going to happen and that same person quickly realized that he didn't have a lot of time if he was to implement his plans.

* * *

Just a few minutes later Nova found herself strapped down to a chair inside a small room. Sarco had told her that this was just a routine debrief and not, whatever this was. Nova then felt something being fitted onto her head by the one tech that was in the room.

"What's going on sir? I don't understand what's happening, what is this…" Nova trailed off before she finally realized something important "Oh god this is where you do all the brain panning isn't it?" she said her eyes darting back and forth around the room in a panic.

Not wanting to let go of her memories she tried to lash out with her telekinesis but found that it didn't work. Sarco let out a condescending laugh.

"I'm sorry trainee but that won't work since this whole room is one big psi screen. And as for why you're here, normally under most circumstances we wouldn't be giving you a brain panning this early into your training but Emperor Mengsk himself has taken quite the personal interest in your training and now you're going to be transferred to the Ghost Academy on Korhal but since we don't want you to be distracted while the Emperor himself is observing your progress we're going to give you an early brain panning before sending you off"

The blond trainee looked even more worried she didn't want this to happen. Nova didn't want to lose the cherished memories that she had of her family and friends.

She looked over at superintendent Sarco with a pleading look on her face "Look I know that this is what I wanted but I don't anymore, I don't, please-" her begging was cut off when those in the room heard screaming noises coming from outside the room where a couple of guards had been stationed earlier.

Sarco was about to go and see just what the hell was going on outside the resocialization room when they heard an explosion and the door was sent flying into the room almost as though it had been the result of a breaching charge. Dust was swept up everywhere and the silhouette of someone of male build came walking in as well another much shorter person who had a more feminine look to her.

Once he was inside Sarco and the other person that was in the room got a much better look at the pair of intruders. It was a seventeen and a half year old boy in a Ghost Academy trainee's uniform.

To put it bluntly the lad also looked very pissed off if how he was aiming the C10 canister rifle in his hands at both the tech as well as preceptor Sarco was anything to go by. The person standing right next to him was a short twelve year old girl with short blond hair who was holding a P10 gauss pistol also known as a scythe pistol in her hands.

"Knock, knock" said Andrew as he aimed his rifle directly at Sarco.

* * *

To be continued


	4. The Great Escape

Starcraft Ghost Warrior

Chapter 4

The Great Escape

disclaimer: I don't own Starcraft or any of the charactes as they are all copyrighted of Blizzard Entertainment, i do however own Andrew Cole

* * *

-Ghost Academy, Resocialization Room-

* * *

Sarco was staring at the scene in front of him utterly dumbfounded. Just a few seconds earlier the metal doorway that lead directly into the Ghost Academy's resocialization chamber had been completely blown open by what must have been some kind of a breaching charge. And a damn powerful one too considering that the door was built out of four inches of reinforced steel.

The blast had easily knocked the academy's superintendent Sarco Angelini clean off his feet and sent him spiraling onto the steel plated floor for a moment or two before he finally managed to pick himself up off of the ground. Once Sarco finally managed to regain his footing he found that someone was now aiming a gun directly right at him from just a few feet away. And even more shocking was the person holding the weapon. It was a student of the Ghost Academy!

"Knock, knock" said Andrew humorlessly as he continued to train the weapon on Sarco while he kept an eye on the tech that was just standing nearby one of the consoles looking as though he was on the verge of having a panic attack if he wasn't already. Sarco looked around and tried to figure out if this guy ha dany help and only saw a twelve year old trainee nearby and was holding a P-10 'Scythe' pistol nervously.

The superintendant didn't have a single clue as to why a couple of students of the Ghost Academy was doing this, Sarco spoke up while doing his best to remain calm and confidant. After all he needed to show that he wasn't intimidated by this teenager in order to keep control.

"Just what the hell do you think you're doing trainee?" Sarco demanded as he desperately tried his best to keep calm. He wasn't going to let some kid that was quite possibly only half his age intimidate him. Sarco couldn't show any weakness to what he now suspected to be some sort of an undercover Anti-Dominion terrorist operative.

The Ghost trainee took on a cold steely look on his face when he spoke up again.

"That's very simple preceptor, I'm leaving the academy and I'm taking both Nova and Delta with me if that's their choice" Andrew stated as a matter of factly while gesturing to the twelve year old trainee that was standing behind him, who was still nervoulsy clutching her pistol.

Andrew turned his head to look directly at the tech that was nearby and spoke in a calm and cold voice "You!" he called out which made the tech flinch fearfully "Step away from that console right now or I'll pull the trigger" he ordered to which the tech officer quickly and eagerly did as he was told and stepped away from the device while keeping his hands where the terrorist spy could see them.

Sarco however saw that since Andrew was now momentarily distracted he decided that now was the opportune time to take action. However rather than foolishly attempt to rush the gun toting teenager or his twelve year old accomplice he decided that he would be much more likely to survive if he were to attempt to go and make a break for the security alarm to call in for some backup so that they may be able to stop the rogue trainee and his comrade from breaking out.

Unfortunately Sarco didn't manage to make it more than a couple of feet when he felt an intense pain enter the back of his leg. Sarco fell to the floor crying out in agony, he had been shot, it was obvious, and although he had been shot several times before when he was still serving in the military it was still something that was impossible to get used to. The head of the academy looked over at Andrew and saw that his weapon was aiming directly at him.

"Nice try superintendent, but I would seriously recommend against trying that course of action again" Andrew warned still aiming his weapon at the superintendent before aiming his weapon directly over at the alarm panel before pulling the trigger on the rifle sending a literal hail of bullets into the alarm panel, making the mechanism completely useless.

Sarco continued to clutch at his leg all the while he continued to groan out in absolute pain for a few moments before the pain made him lose consciousness. The wound itself wasn't life threatening but it would be very difficult for the superintendent to walk with his leg like that for several months at least without a cane it would be.

Once Sarco lost consciousness a strange thing occurred. The Ghost Academy's superintendant's form rippled like water for a moment or two before changing into someone completely unrecognizable. Instead of the messy blond haired thirty four year old the trainees had known there was an individual that looked as though he was in his forties and his hair seemed to have been surgically removed long ago.

But the most disturbing part of this individual's appearence was the large number of implants that had been surgically grafted onto him. Two circular shaped implants completely covered his ears or had been put in place of his ears whle others were implanted directly on and into his neck and forehead with almost thin wires that went from a small portion of each of the impants and were connected to another.

Resisting the urge to be sick Andrew turned back to the nearby technical officer who continued to have his hands up and was standing right by a wall as far away from the command console as he could possibly be while Andrew walked right up to him and slammed the back of the man's head against the wall a couple of times before the man fell to the ground also unconscious.

Nova just looked on at what was happening in front of her with what could only be described as a mixture of both shock and awe completely evident on her face. The Andrew that she had known for the past month and a half was a very nice and kindhearted individual and it was almost disturbing seeing him act this cold. Andrew quickly walked over to the command console and inputted several commands into it, Nova then felt the electronically powered restraints deactivate.

Without a moments hesitation Nova quickly tore off the device that had been placed on her forehead and immediately stormed over to Andrew intent on getting some god damned answers out of him. It wasn't that she wasn't grateful for that rescue, she was just really confused as to what was going on.

"Alright just what the hell is going on?" she asked. Her teammate looked directly at her with the same look that he gave people when he told them that he was being absolutely serious with them and took out one of the two scythe pistols that was attached to his hip holsters and offered the weapon to her grip first.

"I'm leaving this hellhole and I'm offering you the chance to come with me, I want you to come but I won't force you into a decision" he explained much to her surprise.

A battle waged itself within the blond telepath's mind. On one hand if she went with Andrew she'd be free to keep the good memories as well as be free in the physical sense as well, but on the other if she decided to leave with them than she'd more than likely end up being branded as a terrorist and hunted down by just about everyone that was under the Dominion's employ, especially since Arcturus Mengsk himself had started to take a personal interest in her training.

After a few seconds of hesitation Nova made her decision and gripped the handle of the weapon before she took it right from Andrew's hand. "Alright, I'll come with you, but why's Delta here and where did you get those weapons?" she asked to which Andrew ceased giving her a serious look and almost looked like he was about to laugh as he recalled something that was rather humorous.

"When I told Delta about what they were about to do to you, she instantly agreed to my offer of leaving this place provided that you come with us and as for the weapons, well let's just say that the armory's guards are much more absent minded than everyone around here seems to believe" he explained somewhat vaguely before they started to make their way out of the room and towards one of the elevators that were nearby.

Once they finished entering the elevator Nova's curiosity soon got the better of her "How the hell are we supposed to get out of this place?" she asked. Andrew didn't seem all that concerned though and she understood why with the next words that came out of his mouth.

"That's actually quite simple really, there's a landing pad up on the first floor where they bring in supplies between the academy and the nearby Dominion military bases that are on the colonies in this system once every couple of weeks and today they'll be offloading some more of their supplies. So all we have to do is get on board, hijack the ship and then get the hell out of here" Andrew explained as he hit the down button on the elevator which was odd considering that they were already on the lower levels of the academy.

That was a very odd choice. The main landing pad was situated on the first floor why in the hell were they heading down even deeper into the Ghost Academy?

"Andrew what the hell's going on? I thought that we were heading for the landing pad?" Nova asked confused by her friend's actions.

"There's one last thing that we need to get before we can leave" he said with a serious tone and he seemed intent on not really giving an answer to the blond telepath. Nova started to ground her teeth together, she was getting very frustrated with his half answer bullshit.

She grabbed his shoulder "Alright I want some answers now. First off, just what the hell is it that you're getting before we leave and just how long have you been planning this?" she demanded. Delta looked a little worried she didn't want either of them to fight especially since they were still in a very dangerous situation and decided that now would be a good idea to speak up.

"Nova I want to know what's going on too but is now really the best time?" she asked in an almost desperate attempt to be the voice of reason at the moment.

Nova relaxed her grip on Andrew's shoulder "Alright, fine but I expect some decent answers when we get out of here" she said.

"I promise that I'll explain as much as I possibly can once we get out of here" he assured as the elevator continued to descend into the deeper bowels of the facility.

No trainee in the Ghost Academy really knew what it was that went on down there as any trainee that did was more than likely brain panned if they ever found out about whatever it was that the scientists were cooking up down there.

* * *

The numbers that displayed what floor they were on slowly began to go downwards as the elevator descended into the bowels of the Ghost Academy. As the elevator continued on its journey Nova noticed the security camera attached to the wall opposite the one nearby the door and realized something "What about the security systems, I mean aren't they watching us right now?" Nova asked before Andrew let out a small chuckle.

"I hacked into Sparky's mainframe earlier today and right now all that the guards are seeing is looped security footage from the other day, you could be planting nukes all over the academy and nobody monitoring the cameras would even notice anything out of the ordinary" he assured.

The elevator continued downwards until he heard a small dinging noise which signaled that they had finally reached their destination. The doors slowly started to open and everyone got back up against the side walls to avoid being seen.

Once the doors had fully opened Andrew took a quick peek inside and saw two lightly armored guards that were both equipped only with stun batons about to cross their path. "Wait right here until I give you the word" Andrew ordered to his two accomplices who both nodded.

The boy then reached into one of his grenade pouches and produced a banger grenade which was designed to temporarily blind and deafen nearby hostiles pulling the pin from the cylinder shaped explosive device and rolled it out onto the floor. The pair of guards heard the sound of something metal rolling along the floor and saw a cylinder shaped object rolling out from the now open doors that lead straight into the elevator shaft.

It took the guards a fraction of a second to realize that the object was in fact a grenade but the time they made that realization it exploded blinding them in a bright white light as well as a loud bang. Before either could even react Andrew slammed his palm against one of the guard's face with a resounding crack which signaled that the man's nose had either been dislocated or quite possibly even broken.

As the guard fell backwards landing on his head while still clutching his damaged orifice in pain. Andrew quickly acquired the man's shock baton and smacked the guard over the head with it. This combined to the damage to the guard had already taken to his head was out like a light and would be for quite a while.

The other security officer had managed to regain his footing and was about to draw his weapon when Andrew shoved his newly acquired shock baton into the guy's abdomen. Not wasting any time Andrew pushed down on the shock baton's activation unit and sent a series of non-lethal shocks coursing through the guard's body which soon disabled him. Andrew then slammed the weapon across the guard's head which sent the guy down to the floor unconscious along with his friend.

Both Nova and Delta looked at the scene with amazed expressions, Andrew had managed to take down two armed guards without even breaking a sweat. Whenever Nova had seen him go up against Hartley or some of the other tougher students that took part in that man's classes Andrew always came close to getting the crap beaten out of him. Now Nova was beginning to wonder if he had been holding himself back the entire time that he had been in this place.

Nova and Andrew quickly dragged the unconscious guards and stuffed the pair of them into a nearby supply closet.

"_Come on we need to head another twenty meters that way"_ he sent while pointing down a nearby corridor. Andrew took point while Nova and Delta watched the rear checking for anyone or anything that would try and impede their progress. Since no one had come out of any of the labs to investigate the disturbance that had occurred only a few moments earlier they both assumed that no one had heard the brief fight that had occurred just a few seconds prior.

Andrew took out one of the small breaching charges that he had 'borrowed' from the main armory. As he placed it on the center of the door in front of them Andrew's mind raced back to the moment when he had acquired it from the armory and briefly wondered to himself as to what in the hell that the Ghost Academy needed those for.

However since Andrew wasn't one to normally throw away something that may be of use he had quickly taken three charges with him when he had raided the armory, one of the charges he had already used when he rescued Nova from the resocialization area of the base. The Ghost operative got on the left side of the door while Nova and Delta got on the other into a standard breaching formation that they had been practicing with some of their preceptors.

_"Now remember people only shoot at the guards don't hurt anyone who can't fight back, and Delta we're going to need you to wait out here in case someone manages to call in some reinforcements" _Andrew ordered.

Although Delta seemed a little reluctant, she wanted to help but she knew that she had zero combat experience of any kind and she didn't want to mess anything up. "_Same thing that we did on that shuttle mission?"_ Nova asked, to which Andrew simply nodded. They may as well try and keep things simple.

Less than three seconds later the charge blew a hole clean through the door allowing them quick and easy access and if they were lucky the charge would also temporarily stun any guards that may be within. Andrew and Nova went in and did the exact same maneuver that they had done during their first attempt at the star hopper mission. The guards inside the room were rendered dazed as a result of the breaching charge.

They were easy pickings for the two Ghost trainees who quickly gunned each and everyone of them down in a hail of machinegun fire. After the final guard had fallen to the ground dead the scientists were all frozen stiff with fear. None of the scientists dared to try and make a suicidal dash for the alarm since they feared that they would be gunned down just like the guards only a few seconds earlier.

Several of them even started to beg and plead for their lives. Nova subtly scanned Andrew's thoughts and although she noticed that although he was a little more than just annoyed with their begging and pleading any telepath could tell that he wasn't going to kill them despite what they were doing to people in this place.

"Nobody moves and no one get's hurt! Got it?" Andrew yelled while he aimed his weapon at the small number of scientists that were scattered throughout the room all of whom looked as though they were ready to wet their pants in fear. Apparently none of them had noticed that Andrew had put the safety back on his C-10 rifle.

Nova looked around the room and saw a large number of computer terminals as well as medical equipment and even an operating suite that were probably for some of the more…invasive methods of resocialization. What grabbed her attention however was what appeared to be a six year old boy that was strapped down onto one of the many operating tables.

The kid was kind of scrawny and also looked as though he hadn't eaten so much as table scraps for several days, he had short light brown hair and wore only a pair of shorts. Nova also noticed that the kid's eyes were darting back and forth. And if the thoughts that Nova was picking up from him were any indication, the poor kid was completely scared out of his wits.

Upon looking at the six year old kid for another moment or two, the blonde Ghost trainee immediately recognized the boy. It was that same exact kid that had been following her around the academy for the past couple of days, the person that had been appearing to her for a few seconds at a time and then disappearing just as quickly whenever she had attempted to approach him or communicate with him.

Nova was broken out of her thoughts when she felt Andrew sending a thought her way, _"Nova, could you watch those scientists, real close"_ Andrew ordered before while Nova trained her weapon on the scientists that were all holding their hands up and keeping quiet so that they didn't end up with acute led poisoning.

Nova then noticed that Andrew was making his way over to the operating table while trying to calm down the kid who was squirming around in his restraints as though he were expecting Andrew to hurt him or something even while he tried to detach the restraints that were holding the kid down.

"Hey easy there kiddo your dad sent us, we're here to get you out, so just hold still for a minute and we'll have you out of here in no time" he said trying to reassure the kid who reluctantly stopped struggling but still looked completely freaked out. Once the restraints were off Andrew looked at the kid and asked "Can you walk on your own Colin?" to which the boy nodded.

"Good because we're going to need to move fast, think you can keep up?"

The boy now identified as Colin nodded once again. Before they could leave Nova felt the massive amount of questions piling up in her head. Who was this kid? Why were they trying to get him out of the Ghost Academy as well? And just what the hell was Andrew really doing here?

Andrew clearly wasn't just one of those trainees who'd been wanting to get the hell out of the Ghost Academy. There was something else going on here and Nova was intent on finding out just what it was. Before the Ghost trainee could even open her mouth to speak Andrew had picked up on her thoughts and gave her an almost pleading look.

"_I promised that I'd explain everything once we get out of here and I have every intention on following through with that but right now we all need to stay focused and keep our mind on the mission"_ he sent to which Nova gave an almost reluctant nod, although she had considered Andrew a friend before she was beginning to have a hard time trusting him since it was obvious that he had been keeping a large number of important things from her.

Since the escapees didn't want to give any of the scientists a chance to raise the alarm they were all quickly herded into a moderately sized storage room that was located nearby that housed all of their medical and scientific equipment before the door was slammed shut and redid the door's pass code locking them inside.

'_That should keep them locked up for a while, at least until after we've managed to get the hell out of here'_ thought Andrew as he reloaded his rifle.

Before they started to make their way back to the elevator the three escapees heard a series of gunshots which came from back down the hallway. The very same hallway where they had left Delta! Andrew and Nova immediately rushed towards Delta's position with Colin following close behind them.

When they exited the room they saw four guards on the floor with several bullet holes in their chests and heads and Delta was standing over them, smoke still coming out of her scythe pistol. Once they were close enough both Nova and Andrew saw that Delta had an almost shell-shocked expression on her face and her thoughts were racing so quickly that they were mostly just a jumble when the two attempted to read her mind.

Unless someone Delta's age had been completely resocialized or were just a complete and utter psychopath to begin with, killing someone, anyone be it guilty or innocent for the first time is a harrowing experience to say the least. Nova knew that better than anyone there.

Andrew tried to get Delta's attention but the girl continued to stare out into space with a horrified look in her eyes and no verbal response seemed to be able to shake her out of her stupor. Nova quickly marched right up to Delta and crouched down enough so that she could eye contact with the girl before she began to gently shake Delta's shoulders breaking the girl out of her trance like state.

"Delta, come on talk to me" she said with a sympathetic look on her face.

"I never meant…they just…" she said trailing off tears starting to form at the corners of her eyes. Like an older sister Nova gave Delta a consoling look. She knew full well how it felt to take someone else's life in the heat of a moment and that feeling was hard to get rid of.

"We'll talk about it later alright?" Nova asked to which Delta nodded before giving Nova a quick hug much to the latter's surprise. The two let go of each other and they began to make a run for the elevator.

As they continued onwards the alarm went off. It would seem that security had finally been notified about their escape plans and they were now beginning to pour out into the hallways.

Each security officer was carrying a shock baton on them but that was their only armament. Apparently they didn't realize that the escapees were now armed with military grade weaponry so it came as quite a surprise when Nova and Andrew started shooting at them while Delta and Colin stayed behind not wanting to get in the line of fire.

After the first group of guards fell to the floor dead the others did the smart thing and stayed behind cover as it was near suicide to try and charge someone who was using an assault rifle with little more than a shock baton. Once they managed to get to the elevator Delta pushed down on the call button while Andrew laid down a suppressing fire with his C-10 canister rifle. Time seemed to slow down for the escapees as the elevator slowly came down to their floor level.

As the sounds of Andrew's C-10 canister rifle fire continued to reverberate Colin covered his ears with his hands in an attempt to try and drown out the noise of gunfire. None of the escapees sensed that anyone was in the elevator but that didn't' mean that they weren't there waiting for them with psi-screens so Nova covered the now opening door with her scythe pistol.

Time seemed to slow down for Nova as elevator doors slowly opened up and showed that the elevator was completely empty. Nova immediately let out a sigh of relief and quickly ushered Colin and Delta into the machine. Andrew was still opening fire with his weapon down the hallway continued to keep the guards pinned down but stopped once he noticed that Nova and the others had started to board the elevator he fired off a few rounds from his rifle into the elevator's call button to help prevent the guards from simply calling the elevator back down.

* * *

A few seconds later the elevator doors closed and they were on their way up to the surface where the ship that they had planned on _borrowing _was waiting for them. Once Nova was in the elevator though she noticed that it was scheduled to stop two floors _below_ their intended destination and wondered why that was.

As the elevator slowly started to make its way up through the complex Andrew made a subtle hand gesture which caused the emergency escape hatch on the ceiling of the elevator to open.

"_Everyone go through the hatch now, go, go, go!" _he ordered. Quickly complying with the order Nova immediately understood Andrew's intentions, although the computer virus had been looping yesterday's security footage on the Ghost Academy's security monitors there was still a possibility that they had managed to eliminate the virus using antivirus software programs and had figured out about their little escape attempt.

If that was indeed the case then the entire Academy would have gone on lockdown by now and they wouldn't be able to use the elevators. But it was also possible that the security officers were attempting to lull them into a false sense of security and the academy's guards would then try and set up an ambush position where the escapees were presumably going.

If that was going on than the small elevator that they were inside was a perfect killing field as there was little no cover nor any room to maneuver.

Once Nova and Andrew were up into the relative safety of the roof of the elevator they helped both Delta and Colin get up as the pair were far too short to make it up on their own before sealing the hatch after they were up with them. Aside from all of the dust that surrounded it the elevator shaft was very well maintained and at first Nova wondered how they were going to get up to the surface when the elevator stopped two floors below where their intended destination was.

Most than likely through scanning her thoughts Andrew answered her unasked question by pointing directly to his right where an emergency service ladder was located that went up the length of the entire elevator shaft which was located to the right of the elevator doors.

The elevator continued on upwards for another thirty seconds before it eventually slowed down to a stop _"Okay everyone this is our stop get your gear together and start climbing the ladder I'll lead"_ Andrew sent before he quietly walked over to the ladder and began to climb upwards towards freedom.

Nova waited until everyone else was on the ladder paused for a moment as she heard the elevator doors below them open and heard the sound of armored boots running around on the floor before they stopped and a few of them were talking to one another about where the hell those escapees were. As she listened to both their thoughts and their voices, Nova silently thanked Andrew for his foresightedness before she proceeded up the ladder along with the others.

After climbing up as quietly as possible for another two floors, Andrew reached out towards the elevator doors with his left hand and slowly clenched his fist before opening it back up as quick as a flash. The elevator doors then quickly buckled before being thrown outwards as though they had been blown clean off by the full force of a hurricane.

Once they had stepped through the broken down doors everyone on the landing pad area even the guards just stopped whatever it was that they were doing and just looked on with shocked looks on their faces. Apparently they hadn't been expecting to see three gun toting teenagers coming towards them.

Taking advantage of their momentary stupor Andrew opened up with his rifle and sent three of the guards that were standing by the freighter that was docked on the landing pad straight into the afterlife while he wounded two others with leg and arm shots.

The crew of the freighter that were on the landing pad ran for the nearest cover that could protect them from the gun toting teenagers but fortunately for them they were for the most part largely ignored as they raced for the docked freighter only a few yards away.

Andrew fired off a three round burst straight up into the air causing the crew of the freighter that were still in cover to flinch "Get your asses away from that ship right now before I pump you all full of lead!" he yelled in as threatening a manner as he could manage. Not wanting to try and test whether Andrew would carry out his threat or not the crew of the ship ran as quickly as they possibly could away from the ship.

Not wasting any time they immediately ran to the freighter that bared a very strong resemblance to a Hercules class heavy dropship only a little larger and more bulky looking than its counterpart

under normal cicumstances Andrew would be hesitant to jsut rush into the ship blind but given the fact that none of them had sensed anyone's thoughts from the ship Andrew assumed that there probably wasn't anyone on board the ship and judging by the thoughts from the ship's crew that had been helping to unload the cargo containers it seemed that they were all currently off of the ship.

And if the Ghost Academy's security officers had known that they were going after the freighter it would be much more likely that they would set up another ambush by the elevator rather than inside the ship and besides they would have gotten the freighter's crew out of the line of fire.

After making their way up into the cargo hold of the ship Andrew pushed a series of commands on a nearby terminal causing the freighter's ramp to rise upwards until it was completely closed and was locked firmly in place. Andrew then made a mad dash for the cockpit as quickly as his legs were able to carry him not wanting to give the Dominion a chance to try and crack open the ship and capture or kill them before they even had the chance to take off.

* * *

Several of the Ghost Academy's guards along with chief security officer James Schneider had surrounded the landing pad and were beginning to set up a perimeter around the freighter. Once the four escapees showed up with several military grade guns, the crew of the ship had quickly gotten as far away as they possibly could. He and the others didn't really have time to get into their normal CMC powered combat armor and were instead in light infantry armor that almost looked like old fashioned riot gear.

As Schneider headed towards the ship he watched as the crew of the freighter running away from their own ship. It was almost entertaining for some of the security officers that had just arrived on the scene, to watch the panicking crew sprint away from the danger zone with the speed of some Old Earth Olympic Games track running team.

The Security team moved in and took up positions around the freighter. They had direct orders from superintendent Sarco that those who were trying to escape were to be captured alive, even the one that had come dangerously close to blowing off one of the man's legs. Hell Sarco was lucky to be alive, the Ghost Academy's superintendant had come dangerously close to falling into shock a few times while they were treating him for his gunshot wound.

The medics had told the Ghost Academy's superintendent that he would be able to keep his leg but would be forced to use crutches for several months and would probably have to use a cane to help him walk for the rest of his life. Still it was a much better alternative than having his leg amputated from just below the kneecap.

Since Schneider had surmised that none of the escaping trainees even knew how to pilot a ship seeing as they weren't being trained for that kind of thing at the academy all that the security officers had to do was simply wait, maybe even make a few phony negotiations with the trainees that were currently attempting to escape. In other words the second that they let their guard down a little bit that was when they'd strike.

The technical officers of the security forces had quickly set up a communications terminal so that they would be able to try and negotiate with the four escapees that were hold up in that freighter. Schneider turned the machine on and quickly contacted those that were in the ship

"Attention escapees, this is security chief James Schneider you are completely surrounded and you have no possibility of escaping here alive, I know for a fact that none of you know how to fly that freighter so I suggest give yourselves up without a fight and I promise that you will not be harmed" he said feeling as though he was movie or something.

Schneider had expected that the escaping trainees would take a few minutes to respond given the possibility that they may not even know how to operate the communications equipment due to the fact that came later in their training.

However much to Schneider's and almost everyone else's surprise the response was immediate and a rather confusing one word sentence, "Nuts"

The security chief honestly didn't know what to make of that little declaration and for a moment he thought that there was a problem with the communications system "Uh, I'm sorry, could you please repeat your last transmission?" he said, surely he hadn't heard that last part correctly.

There was the sound of someone's throat clearing on the other end of the line before the man spoke up "Screw you" Andrew Cole stated defiantly. Before anyone could react to what was said Schneider heard the freighter's engines starting to hum and before long turned into almost deafening roaring noise.

Reacting immediately Schneider and several other security officers opened fire with their pistols despite knowing that it wouldn't be nearly enough to bring down the large cargo hauler. The security chief emptied a full eighteen round clip into that ship's hull and didn't do much to it other than scratch the ship's paint job.

Schneider knew that trying to call for military support would be a useless attempt since the virus that had been uploaded into the Academy's mainframe was still wreaking havoc with most of the Ghost Academy's long range communications. The security chief looked on as the ship continued to rise above them for a few more moments before its afterburners kicked in and the ship flew upwards until it was no longer visible to the naked eye.

James was most definitely _not_ looking forward to informing the administrator of the Ghost Program Kevin Bick or even superintendent Sarco Angelini about this little fuckup.

* * *

-Stolen Freighter-

* * *

Nova sat down in her chair in the cockpit and felt the freighter continue to shake as they gained more and more altitude. The blonde telepath watched as the ship passed through the clouds and the blue sky above it slowly began to shine with countless stars as they continued to get farther and farther away from the surface of the planet.

She looked over to her right and saw that Delta looked like a nervous wreck while Colin looked a little green and judging by the poor boy's thoughts, was on the verge of throwing up the contents of whatever his breakfast had been earlier in the morning.

As though he had scanned their thoughts Andrew spoke up "Don't worry we're just passing through the upper atmosphere, the shaking will stop momentarily" he assured and sure enough less than ten seconds later the shaking had subsided. However their momentary relief was broken with the next sentence that came out of Andrew's mouth.

"Unfortunately though I'm going to have to ask all of you to keep yourselves buckled in we're making a warp jump"

Nova was about to ask if that was some kind of a joke but Andrew flipped a series of switches on one of the dashboards and for a brief second felt the effects of warp travel as the freighter accelerated to faster than light proportions. Soon everything settled as their bodies got used to the feeling of warp jumping. The second that they did Colin jumped from his seat and ran as quickly as he could to the nearest door that was labeled: restroom, Colin's hand covering his mouth as he went.

Andrew and the other two female passengers on their stolen freighter got out of their seats. Nova immediately walked over to Andrew who had just gotten out of the pilot's chair "You promised us some answers" she said. Andrew sighed before gesturing towards the restroom with his thumb.

"You want me to tell you now or do you want to wait until Colin gets out of the bathroom first?" He asked almost jokingly but the look and thoughts that both Nova and Delta were giving him suggested that now would be a better time. Andrew sighed and adopted a serious expression on his face "Alright but you may want to have a seat for some of this" he suggested.

Both Delta and Nova sat back down on the seats that they had been on when the freighter had first taken off. Andrew however rather than sitting down on a nearby chair instead just sat down on the cold hard titanium plated floor.

"I work for an Anti-Dominion group that was contacted by former senator Corbin Phash who offered us a lot of monetary support if we were to get his son out of the Academy and back to him and give them some fake id's and drop them off at some remote colony so they could start new lives. I spent the last month and a half looking for Colin in this Ghost Academy so that I could get him out of there" he explained.

Nova gave Andrew a look of near disgust "So you just rescued everyone here so that you and your rebel friends could get some money for your little campaign against the Dominion?" she demanded. Andrew looked exasperated at that last comment.

"If I was just doing it for money then why the hell did I take both of you with me then? I could have just gone and gotten Colin out of there and left you to have your memories wiped out but no instead I risked my entire mission and my life just so that I could give both you and Delta a choice on whether or not to become cold blooded killers for the Dominion or let the two of you have a deent chance at freedom" he explained.

Both of the girls in front of Andrew looked at each other, they really couldn't argue with that kind of an argument. Nova sighed and rubbed her temples in thought before asking "Just what Anti-Dominion group do you work for anyways?" she asked.

Andrew looked Nova right in the eye and said two simple words that set off alarm bells in her mind "Raynor's Raiders"

To be continued.

When I put the response to the surrender demand from that security officer into the fanfic I was actually borrowing off of history. During the Battle of the Bulge in WWII a group of Allied soldiers were completely surrounded by Nazi soldiers and the commander of the Nazis demanded that the commanding officer in charge of the Allied soldiers surrender but they recieved only one simple word in response to their demands "Nuts"


	5. Explanations and More Questions

Starcraft Ghost Warrior

Chapter 5

Explanations and More Questions

* * *

-Stolen Dominion military freighter, currently in warp space-

* * *

The second that Nova heard that Andrew worked for Raynor's Raiders she immediately wished that she hadn't left her weapon back in the ship's cargo hold. If this guy really did work for Raynor's Raiders than she had every right to be as heavily armed as she possibly could be while near him.

Nova had heard of Jim Raynor of course, just about every human that lived out in the Korprulu Sector had. The Universal News Network or UNN as it was most commonly called had made a fair number of reports on Jim Raynor and his terrorist organization a great many number of times since the Broodwar which ended nearly a year and a half ago.

The well known news program had always shown that both Raynor and his allies were nothing more than a band of mass murdering terrorists who were intent on doing nothing more than killing everyone that they could find in an attempt to spread dissent and chaos throughout the entire Koprulu Sector.

And while Nova didn't say anything at first Delta was the one who voiced both of their thoughts "You work for a mass murdering terrorist!" the twelve year old exclaimed, shock overtaking her facial features. Andrew Cole instantly frowned upon hearing the 'terrorist' comment.

If there was one thing that really rubbed Andrew the wrong way then it would have to be when people referred to Jim Raynor, a man who had sacrificed so much in the defense of every living being in the sector to be referred to as a terrorist.

"Don't call Raynor or any of my friends terrorists because despite what Mengsk and his cronies may say about us, we are _not_ savages, we do _not_ under any circumstances kill civilians we only target Dominion military outposts and bases, you know, guys who are trained soldiers not innocent people who can't even fight back! And we sure as hell wouldn't kill civilians even if they could fight back unlike that ruthless tyrant Megnsk who has anyone who speaks up against him arrested and executed!" he exclaimed before calming down a little.

Despite his passionate speech Andrew could tell that the two girls still appeared to be very really reluctant to believe a word he said. Andrew let out a sigh and then paused for a moment before he spoke up.

"Look if we were monsters then why didn't we just go in and massacre everyone at the Ghost Academy and then just take Colin back to his father, we could have done something like that, the Raiders more than have enough resources to pull something like that off. You know why we didn't do something like that?" he asked but before either of them could respond Andrew proceeded to answer his own question.

"Because we didn't want the blood of a bunch of kids on our hands, period. So Raynor agreed to let me infiltrate the Ghost Academy in order to get Colin out and back to his dad" Andrew explained.

Before Nova or Delta could respond Andrew put his hands out in front of him defensively "Look I'm not saying that you have to join our cause or anything like that, once we get to the rendezvous point with the Hyperion I promise that we'll give you both some new identities so that the two of you can start new lives on some random fringe colony or something like that if that's what you both want"

The instant that Andrew had finished speaking, Nova realized that his normally heavily guarded mind was now all but an open book for her to read and she immediately scanned his thoughts to check if he really was telling the truth about this. It only took her a few seconds of thought scanning to find out that what he was saying was the absolute truth.

It seemed as though that Andrew Cole genuinely believed that Jim Raynor would let them go if that was what Nova and Delta both wanted. Although normally Nova would want to see some more proof in regards to Andrew's claims, she decided that under the circumstances this was probably the best evidence that she'd get to Andrew's true intentions.

After all people's thoughts didn't lie especially if a telepath read them hard enough "Alright fine I believe you" said Nova while Delta just looked over at Nova with a look of shock that rivaled the facial expression from when she had found out that Andrew worked for Raynor's Raiders.

"You trust that guy? He works for a terrorist organization!" she exclaimed. Delta could scarcely believe that Nova was actually trusting this guy. Andrew gritted his teeth in annoyance while he did his best to withstand the almost undeniable urge to angrily remind the girl that they weren't a bunch of terrorists when Nova spoke up again.

"I just scanned his thoughts, he's telling the truth, but I'm not sure that any of us ready to believe this whole 'Mengsk is a ruthless tyrant' thing but I'm willing to see both sides of the argument first" she said which seemed to calm Delta down a little bit.

However there was still a few questions gnawing away at Nova's thoughts "Can I ask you why you let me see your thoughts? I could have just as easily tried to shut off your brain or something" she said

"I knew that if you saw my thoughts you'd know that I was telling the truth. Raynor and his men aren't bad people Nova, I hope that when you meet them in person that you'll see that and besides you don't strike me as the person who would do something like that" Andrew explained before he headed towards the door but stopped himself before he got to the door and turned around to face Nova and Delta.

"Oh and in case I forget later, before we got to the rendezvous point we'll be stopping at one of the old Vespene gas mines at the Bakers Dozen to get some more fuel in this thing or else we aren't going to make it to the rendezvous, we should be there in about two and a half days" said Andrew before walking out of the room leaving the two girls to their thoughts while Colin continued to puke his guts out in the restroom.

* * *

-Ghost Academy, medical bay-

* * *

Sarco Angelini was many things right now but a good mood was not one of them, at the moment he was laying down on an uncomfortable hospital bed in the medical bay. The doctors had told him just a few minutes ago that although they had removed the bullet from his leg it was very unlikely that he would ever be able to walk without either a pair of crutches or a cane for the rest of his natural life.

Not to mention the fact that one of the trainees at the Ghost Academy was not only a terrorist spy but also managed to make off with two of the most promising Ghost Operatives that he had seen since emperor Mengsk had established the Terran Dominion. The Ghost Academy's superintendent heard the door hiss open and saw Kevin Bick's form enter the medical bay, looking even more livid than Sarco was feeling if that was even possible at the moment.

"What the fuck happened here Sarco!" he demanded as he walked in not wasting any time getting down to the main topic of the visit and the reason as to why it was that Sarco had been hospitalized.

"First I've been called in to do another pointless interview with UNN about Aal Cistler and now I'm hearing that one of our most promising trainees along with Colin Phash and two others have somehow managed to escape the facility. Right now I'd like a damn decent explanation as to what the hell happened!" Bick yelled.

Yesterday shortly after the incident with Lio, Aal had been dragged out of the cafeteria in front of both his team along with several other trainees who were having lunch and was then taken to Kevin Bick's office.

Once that little delinquent finally arrived he was confronted by the Bick and Sarco who had managed to find out just what it was that he had done. Soon after the confrontation they quickly expelled him from the Academy despite the fact that Aal kept saying that trainee Toom's father would be in deep shit if the director actually kicked him out of the academy.

Cistler was getting off lightly in Sarco's opinion, he'd only have to deal with an angered father rather than a courtoom seeing as how if it was up to director Bick, that little rat bastard Cistler would have been sent straight to prison on drug running charges.

But seeing as how Aal's father was the Dominion's Finance minister, the spoiled brat would be sent home rather than prison. Both Sarco and Bick had hoped that that would be the end of this inconvenient situation but unfortunately once Aal got back home he managed to stir up quite a bit of trouble. Bick was already halfway to Korhal for an interview with UNN about these claims when he found out about what had happened and immediately had his transport turn back so that he could find out what the hell had happened for himself.

Sarco found that he couldn't say anything for a moment but then spoke up.

"Right after Lio's little 'episode' during Blue team's training session I took Nova who had found out about Lio's drug problems and I had planned to wipe that memory along with a few others before we sent her to the Ghost Academy back on Korhal just as Mengsk had ordered.

However we had been caught completely off guard when one of our so called students that went by the name of Andrew Cole managed to acquier a number of military grade weapons from the armory and proceeded to break Nova out before we could finish the memory wipe. He shot me in the leg sir while I attempted to get to the security alarm in an attempt to contain the situation. However as you can see that little plan failed.

Then he along with Nova and another trainee that we have identified as Delta Emblock proceeded to break Colin Phash out of the research wing. They knew exactly when, where and how to hit us director, we assume that they then took the elevator up to one of the landing pads and proceeded to hijack a freighter that was offloading supplies for the Academy sir" Sarco said giving Bick the rundown of what had happened.

"You 'assume' that they took the elevator up?" Bick asked cocking a thin eyebrow in disbelief. He didn't know that their security officers had become so lax as of late that they couldn't even track the trainees on the security cameras. As if in response to his criticizing thoughts Sarco then continued with his explanation.

"Our security systems were hit by a virus that disabled all of our long range communications as well as most of our security systems and put in a looped security recording of yesterday's security footage, whoever this 'Andrew Cole' really is, he clearly had thought of every possible factor before attempting to escape" Sarco explained before he began to wonder; how much did those on the outside know about this?

"What about the public or the other trainees do they know anything about what happened here?" he asked voicing his concerns while sitting up a bit more in the hospital bed.

Bick let out a sigh before responding "Thankfully nothing yet, and I would prefer to keep it that way until we can figure out what the hell it is that we plan on telling them" Bick explained while Sarco nodded, this was going to be a nightmare for both of them and something told him that things were going to get a lot worse before they got better.

And to make matters even more compplicated for them, it wasn't as though they could just go and brainpan every single trainee that was in the program so that they could wipe every last memory that they had of Cole, Nova and Delta from their memories, they simply didn't have the facilities to attempt something of that scale.

Over time they'd be able to pull something like off but it would be much easier and less time consuming for them to use an alternative method of deception. So for now they would have to simply allow the students at the academy keep their memories of the three runaways.

"What about the rest of Blue team" asked Sarco who was very curious to find out how they would react to find out that three of their friends had decided to make a run for it. Bick stroked his chin for a moment before he responded

"Have some of our best interrogate them, verbally of course, no physical violence, we need to know as much as we possibly can about this 'Andrew Cole' fellow" the bald man explained before he turned around and walked towards the door.

Before he reached the medical center's exit however he stopped and looked back at Sarco.

"I sincerely hope that you realize that we are treading on very, very thin ice right now Sarco. Aal Cistler has somehow managed to turn his expulsion into a damned media frenzy almost overnight, keeps on saying that he was set up by us. Right now we don't need anymore bad publicity, especially with all of the pirate holos that Corbin Phash has been broadcasting as of late" the Ghost Program's training director explained before he finished walking out the door and left Sarco Angelini to his thoughts.

* * *

Tosh and the remaining members of Blue team were eating their lunch and Tosh was a little curious as to where Nova and Andrew were off to. Earlier that day Lio had attended classes and explained that his earlier seizure like event had been brought on by food poisoning thanks to the fact that the food he had been served was outdated which in turn prompted Kath to make a remark about how after eating too much of the horrible food at the academy that something like food poisoning would inevitably occur.

As Lio sat down to eat some of his lunch however he quickly noticed that there were three others that were missing from their little group "Hey where's Nova, Andrew and Delta? They're here right? Right?" Lio asked looking around the cafeteria but had seen no sign of any of them.

Kath shrugged "Don't know I haven't seen them around for quite a while" she said but kept some of the suspicions that she had as to where they were to herself.

"What about Aal? Is he still around here?" asked Lio. Kath's face instantly turned into a scowl when she heard that name. Before he was kicked out of the Academy, Aal decided to do his best to piss off Kath one last time.

The other night when she tried to contact her father she was blocked out because he was being investigated by the finance ministry because of some accounting irregularities in sector nine and he wouldn't be able to send her any messages for little while. After that she found out that she had been sent a message by Aal who had been kicked out for some reason the day earlier.

Normally Kath wouldn't want anything to do with that asshole, however curiosity soon got the better of her and she had a look at the message which was just a holo of him mocking her about her father's current predicament and how his daddy was now putting hers in a very precarious situation with the Conglomerate.

After hearing those taunts Kath made a promise that she'd beat the living shit out of Cistler if that rat bastard ever showed his face around here again. Seeing Kath's apparent discomfort Tosh decided that it would be better to tell Lio himself.

"We're a little sketchy on the details but apparently Aal was kicked out for some reason" he explained. _'no real loss there'_ Tosh thought

The three continued to chat amongst one another but they were all broken out of their thoughts when they saw several of the academy's security officers walking directly towards them. Each officer in the group that came towards them were equipped with a psi-screen which made scanning the guards' thoughts impossible. The second that they arrived at their table Tosh got up off of his seat and walked over to the security officers.

"What's going-" he started to ask but was interrupted by the leader.

"Trainee Gabriel Tosh I'm afraid that we're going to have to ask you as well as trainees Toom and Travski to come with us immediately" the man ordered in a tone that made the thought of arguing unwise.

The three remaining members of blue team were then taken down several corridors and after a few minutes each member of Blue team was then herded into several separate "Interview rooms" as they were calling them. The room that each of them were forced into was almost completely bare aside from a plain steel desk as well as two chairs on either side of it. On the far side of the wall there was a mirror that was almost certainly one way glass.

Tosh calmly walked into the room without any sort of a fuss knowing that it wouldn't do any good anyways and sat down on the chair facing the glass. Time seemed to slow down while he was inside the interrogation room and he couldn't sense anyone outside or nearby probably because they more than likely had psi-screens equipped.

As Tosh sat there he began to wonder as to why it was he was even there. He knew for a fact that he hadn't done anything wrong so why in the hell was he sitting in a less openly threatening interrogation room?

Team Blue's leader was broken out of his thoughts by the sound of a door opening. A man was on the other side, he wore a Dominion military officer's uniform and wore a pair of glasses as well as a psi-screen, he also carried a file underneath his hand. The guy had a serious look about him despite his mostly neutral demeanor. He sat on the other side of the desk and placed the file in front of him.

Tosh was about to ask what was going on when the man spoke "Trainee Gabriel Tosh, I am lieutenant Allen Cisco. We have a number of questions in regards to one of your teammates, a young man by that goes by the name of Andrew Cole"

Tosh frowned not really didn't like where this conversation was going. Did Andrew do something wrong that involved Nova and Delta? Was that why they weren't attending classes since yesterday?

"What kind of questions?" Tosh asked knowing that they weren't going to give him any information about what was going on.

"Had trainee Cole been acting strange at all, any out of the norm behavior for him at all lately?" Cisco asked respectfully before adjusting his glasses for a moment "No, not really, I mean he seemed a little anxious about something recently but I didn't think much of it" Tosh answered honestly.

Cisco stroked his chin in thought before he asked his next question "Alright then can you tell me anything about mister Cole's personal history such as where he was born, birth date, if he had any at all family or friends outside of the academy?"

That question seriously threw Tosh for a loop, didn't the Academy's administration staff have numerous and highly detailed files on each and every single trainee that had been brought into the Ghost Academy.

"Don't you guys already have files on that kind of stuff?" Tosh asked curiously. This was strange why would they need to talk to him about something like this.

"I'd much rather hear it from you" after all Cisco knew now that most of those files on that particular trainee were more than likely doctored but perhaps it was possible hat Andrew Cole had shared some things that were personal with a few of his fellow trainees since his arrival.

Tosh gave a small shrug with his broad shoulders "He never really told us much of anything, whenever anyone would get on to that sort of topic he'd steer it towards something else, and he always shielded his thoughts perfectly even without a psi-screen. Once we asked him about how he was able to do taht, but Andrew just said that he had his own system that worked well for him and then he just left before we could ask him anything else.

As Allen Cisco continued to ask his questions his patient demeanor started to slip when he wasn't given any of the answers that he wanted.

Eventually Cisco all but lost his patience "Is there anything that you _do_ know about him for a fact?" the spectacled man asked sounding more tahn a little frustrated that this chat wasn't getting him or the Dominion any information of value on the terrorist spy that had not only managed to successfully infiltrate an Academy filled with telepaths but also managed to escape with some of the Academy's more valuable trainees/test subjects.

A little over an hour later they were still getting no where, other than a few pieces that referred to Andrew Cole's personality that was already known to most of the other preceptors in the Academy. Cisco was about to ask another question when Tosh interrupted him.

"Alright I've had just about enough, we've been here discussing Andrew Cole for over an hour now and I'd like to know just what the hell is going on here" Tosh demanded.

"I'm sorry trainee but that information on a need to know basis at the moment" Cisco apologized insincerely which gave Tosh the immediate impression that even if the information wasn't classified Cisco probably wouldn't answer Tosh's questions anyways.

Cisco sighed. It was obvious that they weren't going to get any information out of him about Cole. Normally when something like this would occur they would use more…interesting methods of extracting information before having the subject's memory of the experience altered of course.

The only reason that they hadn't used these methods yet was because they hadn't received the go ahead from director Bick who was in a media frenzy at the moment, so there really wasn't anything that he or the other interrogators could really do for the time being other than let them go seeing as how Cisco had no other questions to ask the trainee that was sitting in the chair in front of him.

"Alright Tosh I have no more questions for you now, you are free to leave" the interrogator said before Tosh got up off of the chair and calmly walked out the door without any hesitation or protest. Until someone decided to tell him and the rest of the team what it was that was going on all he could really do was just speculate.

Once Tosh walked out of the interrogation room he aw that Kath and Lio were already outside waiting for him. Once Tosh was outside he along with the other members of his team were then for the lack of a better term *guided* back to the cafeteria with many questions on their minds but no real answers.

As they walked back Cisco and the other interrogators went to go and report their findings or lack thereof to director Bick.

* * *

-Stolen Dominion Freighter-

* * *

Andrew was in the modestly sized crew quarters of the stolen freighter sitting down on one of the small bunks that that dotted the area. His legs were crossed and his eyes were closed and to an outside observer he appeared to have adopted a meditative posture similar to that of some kind of an Old Earth monk.

It had been a few hours since they had escaped and Andrew had since retired to the crew quarters after checking over the equipment that was still onboard the ship.

Dozens of weapons filled a large number of crates that were packed into the cargo hold. The contents of the crates included a number of C-10 canister rifles as well as Dominion marine standard issue C-14 gauss impaler rifles and even a few heavier weapons such as chain guns and hand held rocket launchers. There was a fair number of standard issue marine CMC powered combat armor as well as a large number of firebat armor in some of the crates.

They even had an APC in the hanger. Although most Dominion APC's generally used treads on their machines this one was a bit different, it had eight large wheels on each size, each one thick enough to be capable of withstanding a couple of direct hits from a military grade rocket launcher.

But what had made Andrew really excited though was the Ghost uniforms that they had managed to get a hold of as well. Ghost armor was specifically built to make it easier for the wearer to get around during combat situations and was much more flexible than the CMC powered armor could ever hope to be. Also as an added bonus they all came equipped with cloaking emitters which rendered the person that was wearing the suit to become completely invisible to the unaided eye.

Andrew was broken out of his thoughts when he felt Nova's thought patterns approach the room he was in and he soon heard the door open with a whishing noise followed by footsteps that came towards him but stopped five or six feet away. "Hello Nova" said Andrew still in his meditative position.

Nova still had a few questions on her mind that much was blatantly obvious, or at least it was to someone that was able to sense the thoughts of sentient creatures. In fact most of the questions that she had were practically being broadcasted like someone yelling into a long range com device that had been set to an open channel.

However the first question that she asked was the one that first came to mind "What is it that you're doing?"

The revolutionary got out of his meditative stance and sat down like a normal person "It's a form of Protoss meditation, a good friend of mine showed it to me once back on the Protoss home world of Aiur it helps me relax and channel my own abilities" he explained almost nonchalantly while opening his mind knowing that Nova would probably want to confirm his claims. The instant that Nova heard the words Protoss and home world a seriously shocked look came over her facial features.

Nova could easily tell that Andrew had been telling truth just by scanning his thoughts. Her eyes widened a bit at that startling revelation, a human becoming friends with a Protoss was unheard of, or at least in the Dominion anyways whenever they were spotted it usually meant trouble for the Terrans involved "You have a Protoss friend?" she asked looking at him oddly.

Andrew looked reflective for a moment and the images of a number of Protoss came into his mind for a brief instant "I have several actually, they're a good people Nova I hope that if and when I ever introduce you to them it will be under pleasent circumstances" he explained but before she could even say anything else Andrew beat her to the punch.

"Alright look since the majority of your questions pretty much involve my life's story I'll just tell you everything from the beginning, the very first thing I can remember is waking up on Tarsonis when the Zerg arrived on the central continent of Tarsonis, I can't remember a damn thing before that moment, no matter how hard I've tried.

Hell, I can't even remember my real name, Andrew Cole was just on the name tag of some dead Confederate Marine that I happened to find and the name stuck I guess. Eventually I ran into Raynor and several other soldiers on that planet and we managed to fight our way off and take over Mengsk's old flagship, the Hyperion.

It was there that I saw Mengsk's true nature" he said his face growing cold and his eyes hate filled as he continued to tell her the story "We were contacted by that bastard and it turns out that he and some of his subordinates had placed these things called Psi-Emitters on the surface of Tarsonis"

"And what's a Psi-Emitter?" Nova asked, somehow though she felt that she already knew the answer to that question.

"You probably already know that Zerg are attracted to the psionic emanations that Ghosts give off right?" Andrew asked to which Nova just nodded beginning to see where it was that he was going with this.

"Psi-Emitters are basically the same thing only a much grander scale, they reach across worlds and Mengsk activated these Emitters without even giving the Confederate Government a chance to surrender and of course just like moths to flame, the Zerg came running over to Tarsonis like there was no tomorrow and following close behind them were the Protoss which were being led by a commander that went by the name of Tassadar.

Mengsk had one of his lieutenants a Ghost by the name of Sarah Kerrigan hold off the Protoss who were trying to save those on the planet form the Zerg and once the Protoss had broken off Mengsk left Kerrigan to fend for herself on the planet and she and the strike team that she had with her were completely overrun by the Zerg.

After we got on baord the Hyperion we were contacted by Mengsk who after a brief argument with Raynor told us that he wouldn't be stopped, not by us, the Confederates, the Protoss or anyone, he said that he'd rule this sector or see it burned to ashes around him.

And seeing just how far he was willing to go to gain more power for himself we formed a resistance movement against him none of us wanted to see another massacre like the one on Tarsonis again. A few months after the massacre on Tarsonis, Raynor started getting these very strange visions of Sarah Kerrigan. It was almost as though she had been trying to call out to him for help.

These visions that Raynor kept on getting repeatedly told him to go to Char. The other Raiders and I were a bit skeptical at first seeing as how both Raynor and Kerrigan used to be in a romantic relationship so we all thought that it was his guilt manifesting itself or something, but after I confirmed that he was in fact getting a psionic message from her we headed for the volcanic planet and when we got there something happened…" Andrew trailed off and didn't look like he was going to continue but Nova urged him to continue the story.

Andrew let out a sigh and continued "When we got there, we found that the Zerg had set up a large number of hive clusters on the planet. We fought those ugly bastards for what felt like an eternity before we were approached by an infested human, one that bore the same face as Sarah Kerrigan.

She told us that she now served the Zerg and that the woman Raynor had known loved was dead and that we were talking to the Queen of Blades the "daughter" of the Zerg's leader, also known as the Overmind. We all knew then that it would be pointless to stay so we left as soon as we were able and oddly enough Kerrigan and the swarm under her command opted not to pursue us" he said finishing part of his tale to a very shocked Nova.

Andrew continued telling his tale and told Nova of how he and the rest of the Raiders had met the Protoss high templar Tassadar and how he had helped to teach Andrew how to control his psionic abilities more effectively and he even learned how to use Protoss psi-blades given the sheer stength of his psionic talents.

Then he told of how they had fought the Zerg on Aiur and how Tassadar had heroically sacrificed himself to slay the Zerg Overmind. After that he told of how he and the rest of the Raiders were duped by Kerrigan who had tricked them into thinking that she had reformed and was now on there side and they began to fight against a new threat, the United Earth Directorate (UED). Once all of Kerrigan's enemies had been slain she turned on them and killed a lot of Andrew and Raynor's friends before she headed back to Char where she had set up shop and killed the new Zerg Overmind.

The rest of story took almost an hour but once he was finished Nova was speechless. She honestly had no idea how to respond to what it was that she had just heard from Andrew. Nova knew for a fact that the guy in front of her was telling the whole truth as she had been allowed almost complete access into his mind which allowed her to check for any lie or deceit.

"Are you okay?" Andrew asked with a very concerned look on his face. Nova let out a breath that she didn't know that she had been holding in and said "I-I'm going to need to think about what you've just told me for a while" she said before taking in a deep breath and started to walk out of the room.

"I know it's a lot to take in but take whatever time you feel you need" he assured. Before she exited through the door she looked back and said "Thank you, for everything that you've done for us" she said sincerely. Andrew smiled and said "Anytime Nova, anytime"

For some reason Nova felt her cheeks warm up a little and her heart rate increase from that last comment as well as the kind smile that Andrew was giving and immediately walked out of the room.

Once Nova walked out of the room she remembered that there were two other people that she needed to talk to. As she walked over towards another area of the crew quarters where Delta and Colin were staying, she suddenly felt even more grateful that Andrew had helped to get her out of the Dominion Ghost Academy.

If he hadn't then Nova would have ended up a near mindlessly loyal assassin for Mengsk and the Dominion. If that did happen who knew how many innocent people that she'd end up killing without any sort of remorse, shame or pity.

Sure some of them would probably end up being a bunch cold blooded terrorists that were much like the bastards who had murdered her parents and brother, but from what Andrew had told her, most of them would probably have ended up being anyone that dared to publicly or privately criticize any of the aspects in regards to Mengsk's rule.

It almost sounded like her time in the Gutter while she was under Fagin's thumb only that time she actually cared about those whose necks she was putting the noose around.

Nova broke herself out of her thoughts once she had reached the rooms that Colin and Delta were staying at. Nova opened the door that led into Colin's room and saw that he was still up and had a nervous look on his face "Are you alright?" Nova asked. The kid slowly and somewhat reluctantly nodded.

"Andrew said that your name was Colin right? Well my name is Nova Terra" she said introducing herself "H-hello Nova" the kid stuttered, clearly nervous about being around her for some reason "Look I have to ask you this, were you the one that kept on appearing and disappearing on me back at the Academy?" she asked

"Y-yes, that was me" Colin said nervously. Judging by the thoughts that Colin was all but screaming in his head it was pretty obvious that the scientists back at the Academy did a real number on his psyche.

Nova was all but completely disgusted with what was done to this nearly seven year old that was right in front of her. Whatever those scientists had done to Colin back at the Ghost Academy must have left some serious emotional and mental scars.

Although that probably didn't mean much to them seeing as how they would've probably just brain panned the kid after they were done experimenting on him and he never would have known what had happened to him.

That was probably one of the main reasons why those scientists had been so calm about experimenting on a little kid. After all someone couldn't be traumatized about something if they couldn't even remember what it was that traumatized them in the first place.

Without wasting anymore time Nova asked "Is there a reason you called out to me specifically?"

Colin looked away for a moment "E-every d-d-day I would try and c-call for help and every time I did it felt as though I was floating o-outside of myself. I saw lots of grownups but they never noticed me, no matter how much I tried t-they just ignored me. But f-for some reason you could see me, I-I just wanted someone to help me" he said tears starting to well up in his eyes.

Nova could empathize with how Colin felt. Every single day while she was in Fagin's compound in the Gutter back on Tarsonis she hoped that each day that someone would either come to her rescue however unlikely that was, or that Fagin or maybe even someone under his command would just put her out of her misery and put a bullet in her brain.

Each second in that place felt like a month in the deepest circle of hell itself as she helped that heartless bastard murder other people in cold blood.

Before Nova could delve too deep into her own past she shook herself out of it and reminded herself that Fagin was dead and that she was free of him which gave her some comfort now. Although Nova's memories of the Gutter made her sick to her stomach the telepath/telekinetic had made her choice in leaving the Ghost Academy and she had planned to stick with that choice she had made no matter where it took her.

The blond telepath then broke herself out of her thoughts and responded to what it was that Colin had said "I see, well you're safe now and within a couple of days you'll be back with your dad and you'll be taken somewhere better" she said trying to do her best to comfort the young boy.

"Thank y-you N-Nova" the young boy replied with a small smile. At least he looked like he was feeling a little bit better.

"Not a problem" Nova assured before she headed back towards the door that led out of the room.

After Nova exited the room she let out a yawn and started to feel a little bit on the tired side. Seeing as how she didn't have much to do she headed for her own bunk room for a little bit of shut eye.

* * *

-Ghost Academy, Cafeteria-

* * *

Tosh along with the other members of Blue team had started to eat breakfast and still Nova, Andrew and Delta were nowhere to be found. Blue teams leader was starting to get a little worried, what the hell was going on? _Where_ the hell were those two? Neither of them had been seen for almost fortyeight hours.

By now Kath and Lio were starting to come up with some theories as to where they were, but most were mainly out of boredom more than anything else since there wasn't much to do at the moment.

As they continued to eat their poorly made food they heard superintendent Angelini's voice come over the Ghost Academy's PA system.

"Attention all trainees of the Ghost Academy, This is superintendent Sarco Angelini, twenty four hours ago a gas pipeline in the Ghost Academy ruptured and exploded. Unfortunately three trainees were caught in the explosion, the deceased's names are as follows Andrew Cole, Nova Terra and Delta Emblock" Sarco said almost casually as though he had just been discussing the weather with someone before the PA system shut off.

The Ghost Academy's superintendent's little announcement immediately caused Tosh and the others to all but drop whatever it was that they were doing and acquire looks of complete and utter disbelief on their faces. They were all having a very difficult time believing that three of their friends had died just because they were in the wrong damned place at the wrong time.

Even Tosh had a hard time believing it himself. The reason though wasn't because he didn't believe that Sarco was lying about their deaths being an accident which was mainly due to the fact that Tosh had a seriously patriotic attitude towards the Dominion that bordered on fanaticism.

It was the fact that after everything that they'd done and gone through that they had been killed by just some random accident that could have just as easily been avoided. It was just crazy to him. As the dark skinned trainee sat there something told him that things were probably going to get a whole lot worse.

* * *

To be continued.

A/N: if you're wondering why Colin's stuttering when he clearly wasn't doing that in any of the Starcraft Frontline books (If you haven't already read them I suggest that you do so very soon, they're awesome) try and remember that he has gone through some very traumatic experiences at the hands of those scientists and he's almost always scared now that someone might end up hurting him, on purpose or otherwise.


	6. Rescue Mission part 1

StarCraft Ghost Warrior

Chapter Six

Rescue Mission part 1

"Talking"

'_Thinking'_

"_Thought sending"_

Disclaimer: I don't own Starcraft, that right goes to Blizzard Entertainment, I do however own Andrew Cole along with whoever else I create.

* * *

-Stolen Dominion Freighter, Currently in warp space-

* * *

It had been almost two days since Andrew, Colin, Nova and Delta's escape from the Ghost Academy and already the occupants of the stolen freighter were beginning to get really tired of staying their current environment. The ship's hallways were barely even lit, the food that was available for them to eat was mediocre at best and the rooms that they were sleeping were almost smaller than the ones that they were forced to sleep in back at the Ghost Academy. If any of them ever managed to get themselves off of this damned freighter then it would be too soon.

Currently Nova and Andrew were in the cockpit of the ship seeing as how they would be arriving at the Baker's Dozen within half an hour. Andrew was in the pilot's chair making sure that everything was going fine with the ship's computer systems while Nova was sitting down on one of the nearby chairs as there wasn't much else to do at the moment. The two other occupants of the freighter were still fast asleep since it had been almost seventeen hours since either of those two had last slept. Andrew flipped a few switches that were on the navigational unit and waited a few moments before he turned his head to look over at the blond Ghost seated behind him.

"In about fifteen minutes I'll be pulling us out of warp space and we'll be near the outskirts of the Baker's Dozen, we'll be docking at one of the Vespene mining facilities on one of the outer planets so we won't attract too much attention" he explained.

As they continued through warp space a familiar question popped into Nova's head, she had been meaning to ask Andrew this for a while now ever since their escape from the Ghost Academy but for some reason she had always kept putting it off until later but she felt that now would probably be the best time to ask.

"Hey Andrew can I ask you something?" Nova asked while Andrew gave her that same smile that almost always made her face heat up and now was certainly no exception "Sure, ask away" Andrew said almost nonchalantly. "Why exactly did you help Delta and I escape from the Ghost Academy?" Nova asked before Andrew cocked an eyebrow at her in confusion.

Seeing the look he was giving her, Nova decided to elaborate further on the subject "What I'm saying is that you could just as easily gone and gotten Colin out of there while I was being brain-panned but instead you risked that whole operation just so that you could get us out as well"

Once Nova had finished that last sentence Andrew let out an amused chuckle "What, are you complaining that I helped to get you two out of there? Because if you want I can stop by another Dominion colony world and i can drop the two of you off" he asked with a sly grin on his face. Nova's face flushed beet red at that remark and struggled to explain herself a bit better.

"What? No all I was saying was that you took a big risk by helping us escape" she explained. The humor on Andrew's face left less then a second later and Nova then wondered if she had said something wrong. "You and Delta are both very good people. I wanted to take the two of you with me when I decided to escape with Colin because I didn't want to see your sense of morals and right and wrong to be twisted into mindless obedience to a corrupt and corrupting government that's being run by a ruthless dictator"

Nova scoffed, she sure as hell didn't feel like a good person. During her time in the gutter she had unwillingly helped Fagin kill off dozens perhaps even hundreds of people. Sure she wasn't the one who pulled the trigger on the guns that killed them but she pointed Fagin and his subordinates in the right direction of who he needed to take out to protect some of his 'business interests' and then there were the people who were back at the Terra Skyscraper, the servants and the passerby who all just had the misfortune to be in the wrong place at the worst possible time.

Andrew who had apparently sensed some of her thoughts swiveled around in his chair and looked at Nova straight in the eye with a serious look. "You didn't kill any of those people intentionally Nova, you were traumatized beyond belief after having been forced to not only watch your parents and your brother be murdered right in front of you, but also being forced to feel them die. Your body just reacted on instinct, and as for those people that you 'helped' Fagin kill in the Gutter you were under severe emotional duress at the time.

What were you going to do to Fagin when he asked you to scan someone he suspected was plotting against him? Say "No" he would have tortured you or killed a bunch of innocent people right in front of you just for you to get back in line. Not a single one of those deaths were ever your fault because you didn't intend on hurting any of those people, and the fact that you not only blame yourself for their deaths and regret just about every action during that time shows that you truly aren't a bad person you just need to find a way to forgive yourself, that's all" Andrew stated hoping to lift Nova's spirits.

Before Nova could respond to Andrew's little speech a beeping noise grabbed both of their attention. Andrew quickly turned around in his chair and had a look as to what was making that noise and found that it was the alert that they were just about out of warp space.

"Nova we'll talk about this some other time, right now could you please go and wake up Delta and Colin and tell them we'll be arriving at the Baker's Dozen shortly? I have to make sure that we don't warp into a sun or something" Andrew stated. Nova nodded and did as was requested of her.

Andrew meanwhile continued to focus on piloting the ship, once the freighter was out of warp space he would have to guide the ship down to one of the many mining outposts where hopefully they would be able to trade some of the supplies that they had stored in the freighter in exchange for some fuel. The miners would probably take that kind of trade when one considered that the freighter they had borrowed was currently filled with a lot of military grade equipment and supplies that could fetch a very high price on the black market.

With that in mind the miners that populated the Baker's Dozen would be complete and utter fools to turn down that kind of a profit especially considering how small a miner's wages were. Andrew put his hands behind his head and did his best to relax in the pilot's chair. All he had to do now was wait just a little while longer and then they'd all off to the rendezvous point where he'd meet up with the rest of Raynor's Raiders.

* * *

In her bunk Delta was tossing and turning in her sleep seeing horrific visions of a horde of Zerg as well as Nova and Andrew fighting them off trying to protect a group of four teenagers that were standing behind them while they tried to head back to the freighter which was their only route off world.

As the fighting continued to intensify Andrew eventually shouted something about having twenty shots left in his weapon before Nova said that she was almost out as well. The group that they were protecting seemed to panic even more at this as they continued back to the ship. Delta checked her own weapon's ammo counter and saw that she was running low on ammunition as well.

Andrew was so focused on the Zerg that were in front of him that he didn't see a lone zergling go to his side and lunge at him sending him to the ground onto his back while desperately trying to get the insect like creature off of him. Meanwhile the seemingly endless Zerg horde continued to close in on their position and soon everything went black.

Delta woke up from her nightmare with a startled gasp that bordered on a scream as she shot straight up from the bunk she'd been sleeping on. She took a few moments to catch her breath feeling as if she had just run a marathon. After a few moments she got up off of the bunk and walked towards the nearby restroom and washed her face while doing her best to shake the images out of her head.

"What the hell is wrong with me?" she wondered aloud as she stared at her own almost disheveled reflection. Eventually though she heard a knock at the door. Seeing no reason why she shouldn't answer it seeing as how there were only three other occupants that were onboard the ship. The twelve year old girl then made her way towards the entrance of her relatively small living quarters.

Once she was at the entrance to her room she pushed the button to the left side of the door that allowed it to slide open. The door slid open and Delta saw Nova on the other side who was currently looking at her with a very concerned expression on her face that looked like it was something an older sister would give. "Are you alright Delta you look a little pale" she asked.

"Yeah I'm fine I…I've just been having some bad dreams lately, I'll be okay" she assured which seemed to satisfy Nova, for the moment at least. "What's going on?" Delta asked curiously "Andrew wants us all on the cockpit, we're going to be landing one of the mining planets soon and he wants all of us to be strapped in for it, just in case" she explained

Nova then led the girl to the cockpit of the ship, all the while Delta did her best to try and get those disturbing images from that nightmare out of her mind.

* * *

-Ghost Academy, isolation room twelve-

* * *

A little over a day ago director Kevin Bick had returned from another interview with UNN and he truly was not in a good mood. The reporter that had been interviewing him had ambushed him with questions in regards as to how he didn't know about Lio's addiction. Especially when Bick had stated earlier in the interview that the Ghost Academy kept a close watch on their students which was a question that was off of the agreed script for the interview. Bick was almost unable to come up with a decent answer before the interview had finally finished airing.

On the way back to the Academy, Kevin Bick wondered to himself if he had made an enormous mistake in accepting the job offer to take over as the head of the Ghost Academy because it appeared that ever since he had accepted this occupation some rather unfortunate things continued to happen to him. When the director got back to the Academy he found a message on his private terminal from Ghostmaster Leonid Celsus the man who had been placed in charge of any and all Ghost related operations that took place the Terran Dominion military.

The message informed him that both Bick and Sarco were now on very thin ice because not only had they lost Colin Phash but also another promising trainee that both Leonid and emperor Mengsk had taken an interest in, to a terrorist spy that had managed to remain under their radar for well over a month!

Bick still felt the embarrassment from that incident and although they kept the general public along with the rest of the trainees of the Academy away from the truth by explaining that the trainees that had managed to escape had been killed in a gas line rupture. The letter also contained a direct order from the Ghostmaster for Bick to detox the drug addict of a trainee immediately or else his entire career would be effectively over and he'd be lucky if that would be the only thing that happened to him.

Not wasting any time Bick ordered Sarco to do whatever it was that he deemed to be necessary to get Lio off of those drugs that he had been taking as quickly as possible. At first they had started with heavy resocialization but that failed to produce any real results with his progress of getting over his addiction. This was mainly due to the fact that Lio had been exposed to the drug since he was at least ten years old. This meant that in order to get him off the drug they would have to try and use a lot less conventional techniques than what they would normally use in this kind of situation.

At the moment however, Sarco Angelini and Kevin Bick were overlooking an isolation room from an observation area. A few moments ago Lio had been placed in the isolation room clad in nothing but his underwear and was standing in front of a table that had an injector filled with what Lio had presumed to be Hab judging by the liquid's color. Earlier that day Lio had been given a very small amount of withdrawal medication that had been mixed in with his food at breakfast and now they attempting to see how far he had progressed in fighting off his addiction during the last couple of days. This was a rather unorthodox method of getting someone off such an addictive recreational drug.

The medical officer who suggested this little exercise had overseen a number similar detox operations had assured them that he had done this numerous times with other drug addicts at several different hospitals over the years and that it would be a perfect way for them to test just how bad the boy's addiction truly was even after getting a dose of withdrawal medication.

Although the medical supervisors in charge of his detox operation had told Lio that he had to face his addiction head on and reject a dose of pure Hab that was put right in front of him. However they neglected to mention to the bald trainee that the vial that was sitting just a few feet in front of the boy wasn't even Hab at all. It was in actuality just a harmless sedative that had been dyed brown to look just like the drug.

Inside the isolation room Lio was talking to himself, trying his best to convince himself that he didn't even want the Hab and how it had been fucking up his life. The longer that Lio was standing in front of the Hab however the more he started to get the withdrawal symptoms, it seemed as though the very presence of the drug that Lio had been using since his childhood was having an adverse effect on him.

The symptoms soon started to grow even worse "I don't want it, I don't want it" Lio kept repeating over and over while his eyes went wide and sweat pouring down his face showing just how much he did in fact want it. Lio lasted for only a few seconds before the boy ultimately caved into his addiction and his desperate need for a fix.

"BUT I NEED IT!" he shrieked. Before Lio could take more than one step forward towards the table that held the drugs he so desperately craved, the floor panel that he had been standing on sent a powerful shock through Lio's body sending him onto the floor of the isolation room. The doctor that was with Bick and Sarco looked disappointedly at Lio and walked closer to the one way glass and spoke into a speaker that was connected to a small PA system built inside the isolation room.

"You have to prove yourself stronger than your addiction Lio and judging by your actions just now that clearly isn't the case, your detox program will be accelerated, starting now" the doctor said with an almost sinister tone while several security guards wearing CMC powered combat armor came in to sedate Lio with a syringe filled with a mixture of withdrawal medication and sedatives.

The trainee struggled at first but given the fact that they were wearing CMC power armor he wasn't able to put up much of a fight and soon the injection unit plunged into Lio's neck and injected the sedative into his body. He was then carried out to the research wing of the facility where they would continue with his, 'treatments'.

* * *

-Ghost Academy Cafeteria at the same time-

* * *

Tosh and Kath hadn't been doing too well since they had heard that three of their friends had been killed, in a stupid freak accident no less. It was tough for Tosh to keep his team's morale up and it was becoming steadily more and more difficult as time went on. All of them were still trying to swallow the fact that Nova, Andrew and Delta were actually dead. Nova had finally started coming out of her shell thanks to both Cole and Delta and not a couple of days later all three of them turned up dead. Kath was especially effected seeing as she appeared to be even more down in the dumps than she had been when she found out that she now couldn't even send off a message to her father who was still under investigation by the Finance Ministry.

When a friend or family member of a Ghost Academy trainee had been accused of a crime communications between them were strictly off limits which meant that any communication privileges that Kath and her father had were now cancelled by the Academy. Or at least those privileges had been cancelled until whatever misunderstanding that had occurred had been completely cleared up.

Despite knowing for a fact that her father couldn't possibly have done something wrong it wasn't in his character and besides anyone could tell that he got more than enough credits per year to live a very comfortable life. But this didn't help her too much seeing as how some other people might not see it that way. After all a lot of rich people just wanted to make more money for themselves, be it legally or otherwise.

This was also made worse by the fact that Aal Cistler had just been placed back into the Ghost Academy and was now making her life a living hell. The bastard did his best to taunt her with her father's predicament as best he could whenever Kath was nearby. At least he wasn't with their team anymore for which Kath was thankful, instead he was on Red team and it appeared that both he and Dylanna Okyl, Red team's leader were becoming very good friends with one another.

At least Dylanna wasn't making any attempt to torment them by bringing up Nova, Andrew and Delta's deaths or anything that was equally despicable. Dylanna may have been a total bitch to almost everyone every second of the day but that was a level that even she (hopefully) wasn't willing to stoop to.

Kath was broken out of her thoughts when she saw one of the preceptors a grizzled middle aged man by the name of Deckard Ross walking towards them while two trainees that she hadn't seen before were following close behind.

One of the trainees was a girl who appeared to be about sixteen years old, she had neck length dark brown hair and brown eyes. She also had a somewhat nervous look about her but at least it wasn't as bad as Lio usually was when he was nervous.

The other trainee was a guy who was about seventeen maybe eighteen years old. The trainee had tanned skin and short curly brown hair. Preceptor Ross approached Kath and Tosh who with the same amount of dignity and pride of any non-resocialized Dominion military officer with nothing wrong or out of place on his uniform.

The instant that he and the new trainees were within five feet Ross said "Trainee Gabriel Tosh, these two new transfers from the Ghost Academy on Tyrador will be the replacements for the two trainees that were lost during the gas pipeline accident two and a half days ago" the man explained with the same commanding tone that a soldier would give to any of his subordinates.

Tosh and Kath both flinched a little at the mention of what had happened to their friends. The wound was still much too fresh and just by mentioning the names of their now deceased friends it felt as though someone had just decided to reopen a wound with a rusty carving knife.

Blue team's leader looked over a the new recruits and seeing as how Tosh basically had no alternative in this he looked over at his new charges and decided to introduce himself as well as the one next to him "I'm Gabriel Tosh and this is Kath Toom, we're both with Blue team"

The tanned boy spoke up first "I'm Alejandro Curze and this is Amelia Ingram" the woman next to Alejandro smiled and said "A pleasure"

Not wanting to act or sound like an asshole Tosh offered them both seats to which they accepted. Once he was seated Alejandro asked "So I hear that there's another member of Blue team a guy called Lio any idea where he is?" Kath just shrugged in response "Apparently food poisoning again for the second day in a row and right now he's somewhere in the medical wing"

Both of the new members of Blue team looked at each other. That wasn't exactly a common occurrence to get food poisoning two days in a row but then again if Lio had taken some food from the same batch by accident then (albeit very unlikely) it was still entirely an entirely possible factor to it.

But if that was indeed the case then wouldn't some of the other trainees be getting sick as well. It seemed that both Kath and Tosh were thinking along similar lines as well but they were keeping it to themselves for the moment.

Instead the group decided that it would be best to get to know one another and they proceeded to do just that.

* * *

-Tai, the fifth planet from the sun, Baker's Dozen-

* * *

Everyone was strapped into their seats inside the cockpit of the freighter as it began to descend into Tai's atmosphere. The ship was shaking as was normal for a ship of that size when it entered another planet's atmosphere "Is this normal?" Delta asked sounding a little nervous having never been in the cockpit of a ship that was descending into the atmosphere before now.

Andrew just chuckled. He had felt just like Delta was at current moment during his first time in the cockpit as well "Don't worry Delta it's always like this with some starships, we're just passing through the planet's gravity threshold, the shaking and pounding should end right about…now" he said as the shaking finally stopped before the ship began to pass through some cloud cover.

As they continued to descend downwards Andrew noticed something very peculiar with the communications as well as the navigation systems on the ship's console "That's odd" he muttered. Nova tilted her head curiously from her seat "What is?" she asked.

"There's no landing beacon, no communications signal, nothing" he said his tone taking a serious edge to it. "Isn't it possible that we're just at the wrong place or something?" Delta asked. Andrew shook his head "No it can't be that they would have hailed us by now and I'm sure this is the spot because I checked the location while we were still in orbit several times. So I'm completely positive that we're in the right area" he explained.

The ship continued its dissent to the planet and after a few moments it finally flew out of the planet's cloud cover. Just a few seconds later the Vespene mining base finally came into view. As the freighter flew towards the mining base's landing platform they saw that there wasn't anyone outside of the main buildings. Seeing as how they were practically out of fuel, they continued on course despite the strange surroundings.

"Hang on I'm initiating landing sequences" said Andrew as the freighter began to rumble slightly as the landing gear extended as it hovered over the landing pad. A few seconds later the ship finished landing with a small thump. Even after they landed there was still no communications signal coming from the Vespene mining outpost. Andrew didn't like this. It was too quiet, as though everyone that had worked there had just vanished without a trace. The spy then swiveled around in his chair and looked over at the freighter's other three occupants.

"Alright here's the plan Nova and I will go and see what's going on outside, the two of you stay here. If anything goes wrong I want you to raise the ramp and stay safe" said Andrew. Needless to say that Delta wasn't exactly on with this plan, she wanted to help them out in the field, not sit on her butt waiting for Nova and Andrew.

"But I want to help" she said. Andrew looked over at her, he knew that she would say something like that "And you can help, the suits' that we're going to be using don't have any motion trackers, if trouble comes our way we'll need to know where it's coming from and we can't do that without your help, besides someone has to stay aboard in case the mining base finally does decide to contact us" he explained.

Delta finally relented "Alright, fine" she sighed "Let's head out" ordered Andrew before the blond telepath/telekinetic nodded "Got it" the two Ghost operatives then headed down to the cargo hold to get suited up.

Just a few minutes later after they had entered the cargo hold area of the ship, Nova was just about done putting on the suit that most Ghost operatives wore. Since it was nearly skin tight she had to shed some of the clothes that she already had on. As she started doing just that though she saw that Andrew had gone behind a group of crates while he got suited up as well for which Nova was happy for.

After all, a lot of the males that were back at the Ghost Academy sometimes tried to fantasize about what Nova looked like naked and a lot of them would kill at the chance to see her strip away enough of her clothing so that she could get into that nearly skintight suit. She was very thankful that Andrew wasn't among them. A few moments later and Nova had finished as was Andrew who had already acquired a pair of C-10 canister rifles from one of the many crates nearby along five clips worth of ammunition for both weapons in a pair of duffel bags that were slung almost casually over his shoulder.

"_You ready Nova?"_ asked Andrew as he tossed her both one of the bags and a C-10 rifle. Nova caught both of them almost effortlessly before taking the spare clips out of the bag and attaching them to the ammo belt that was located on her suit's hip. After putting on their gear Andrew walked over to the ramp and pushed a small green button. With a moment's hesitation as the command went through several wires that went into the steel plated floor, the ramp began to lower down until it hit the concrete landing pad with a dull thump.

The two walked down the pad with their weapons at their sides. So far the entire place seemed deserted _"Nova, am I the only one here who isn't sensing anyone in the entire outpost?"_ Andrew asked sounding a little nervous _"No you're not, I can't detect a single thought pattern other than yours, Delta's and Colin's"_ she responded.

The two checked the surrounding area and sure enough there wasn't anyone there. _"Hey Nova, you see that big building with the antenna array?"_ Andrew asked, Nova looked over to what had to be the biggest building in the complex, and sure enough there was an antenna array on top of it _"Yeah"_ Nova sent.

"_That looks like the primary operations complex, after we hook up the refueling unit we'll probably have a good hour, hour and a half before the freighter has finished refueling, I want to find out what the hell is going on in this place"_ he sent before he walked over to a nearby SCV and climbed into the machine's cockpit.

The SCV walked with sporadic, almost uncertain movements that reminded Nova of a child that was still trying to learn how walk properly. For Nova it was a little entertaining, watching someone like Andrew who was what some might call a total badass, struggle with the mechanics of something as easy as an SCV. As the SCV continued to take awkward steps towards the refueling hose that was attached to a large pipeline Nova could make out Andrew cursing with unguarded thoughts. Apparently his severe frustration at having to use the old machine forced him to lower some of his mental barriers.

'_Damn piece of junk, why the hell don't these things ever seem to do what I want them to?'_ he cursed inwardly as the left arm managed to grab the Vespene gas fuel hose and clumsily drag it back to the ship's refueling unit.

As he tried to hook the hose's nozzle up to the fuel unit he continued swear and curse inside his mind, eventually he thought something that Nova found kind of amusing. _'Who the hell has inverted controls for something that isn't used for flight anyways?!'_ Andrew thought angrily.

If there was one thing that Andrew hated just as much as the Terran Dominion then it would have to be piloting an SCV. For him the controls were always too damned slow and never responded the way he needed them to. Hell a siege tank with most of the stick controls removed could be operated easier than this piece of crap. Much to Andrew's relief however, he rarely, if ever needed to pilot them as he was usually on recon, support and assault missions not construction and resource collection, he preferred to leave that kind of work to the folks that actually _liked_ having to pilot those damned things.

Eventually the hose's nozzle was finally hooked up to the fueling unit and it began to slowly start to fill the tank with refined Vespene gas. Not wanting to stay inside the SCV a moment longer, the Ghost operative climbed his way out of the SCV's cockpit keeping it parked there with the hose in its clawed arm.

"_Alright, let's go for the antenna array, but look sharp, I don't like the looks of this"_ sent Andrew before he and Nova headed for the main complex. As they went there Andrew sent a message to Delta who was still inside the ship _"Delta, could you please keep an eye on the communication's frequencies and let me know if you find anything interesting?"_ he requested.

"_Alright, sure thing"_ she sent with a hint of nervousness in her thoughts before Andrew and Nova headed for the main building. As the two made their way to the building they had their weapons out and were being very cautious about their movements. Although the Dominion likely had no idea of where their current whereabouts, Andrew decided that it would be for the best if they played it safe for a while and didn't rush in recklessly.

Eventually they reached the door that led into the control building Andrew signaled Nova to provide cover while he opened the door. Andrew cautiously made his way to the terminal and pushed the button that read 'open' but of course the machine said that the door was locked.

"_Of course the door is locked"_ sent Andrew as he pulled out a small PDA like object that had two wires extending from the top of it from his equipment belt. Andrew quickly removed the terminal's access panel and exposed the wiring underneath it before he cut open the rubber that covered the wires a little with his knife. He then took the wires that were extended from the PDA and connected them to the cut wires before he turned on the device he held in his hands. Andrew pressed several buttons that were on the PDA and eventually the device's screen turned from white to a brightly colored green signaling that the bypass had been completed. Not three seconds later the doors that led into the complex opened up allowing them entry.

The hallway that led into the complex was empty but that was expected seeing as how nobody had bothered to respond to their hails as well as the fact that there weren't any workers that they could find ever since they had landed. However Andrew kept his guard up, this was just too strange, if the place was abandoned then why in the hell wasn't the place stripped of almost anything that was remotely useful.

However that wasn't important at the moment what was however, was getting to the command center so that they could get some answers. However they weren't going to just rush in, instead they both activated their cloaking units and slowly and cautiously made their way forwards, after all the cloaking unit that all Ghost operatives were given were able to keep them invisible from the eyes of the enemy but as advanced as the stealth unit was it was unable to deafen the sounds that they could end up making.

As they walked past the darkened corridors the night vision that they used to illuminate their path showed absolutely nothing that even hinted that the facility had been attacked. It took a while but eventually Nova and Andrew's defensive postures relaxed a bit but they still kept alert. They were pretty sure this wasn't some sort of an ambush by the Dominion considering that they probably had little to no idea where they were but Andrew and Nova weren't going to let their guard down just because it was relatively quiet.

After passing several corridors there was writing on part of the wall that read, 'control room' along with an arrow that pointed towards the stairs that lead upwards. Andrew went up first and checked some of the upper floors. _"Looks clear"_ he sent before Nova joined him upstairs. Once Nova finished climbing the two flights of stairs they continued onwards to the command center of the mining complex. As they walked towards their destination they started to raise their guard again, if there was an ambush waiting for them here, this would be the perfect place to put it.

"_Nova cover my back while I move in"_ Andrew sent. _"Roger"_ she responded.

Carefully and with no small amount of suspicion Andrew made his way into the large room and scanned the area for several long moments before he was finally satisfied that there wasn't an ambush waiting for them in there. _"Clear"_ he sent before Nova joined him in the command room. The first thing that Andrew did was head straight for the terminal that contained all of the colony's logs. Once there he turned the terminal on and began to search through the system logs. For a few minutes Andrew searched the logs before he found something that immediately sparked his interest. Andrew quickly read and reread the log to make sure he had read everything right and that he wasn't just imagining things.

"Hey Nova I think I found something that you may very well interesting" he called before Nova walked over to where Andrew was sitting. The second that she got close enough Nova saw that they were looking directly at starship entries into the system which she didn't really see was relevant at the moment "What exactly am I looking at?" she asked.

"Apparently the second to last ship to enter this system within the last twelve months was a star hopper class shuttle with Confederate credentials, also it seems to have come from Tyrador IX it's known as the Light Runner, and it landed at an old mining colony on Shi" Andrew explained hoping that Nova would be able to connect the dots. Nova looked over at the log for herself and was stunned, it couldn't be them, it was completely impossible. There was no way in heaven or hell that it could be them.

But the evidence was sitting right there in front of her. The shuttle was the same make and model as the one that had left Tarsonis with the Confederate Old Family children a little over a year and a half ago, hell it even had the same name.

But what proved to her beyond a reasonable doubt that it was the same shuttle was that the credentials that identified it as the property of Arturro Calabas. A little excited Nova asked "Can we raise them?" she asked but Andrew shook his head.

"No this piece of crap communications relay is barely able to transmit past Tai's atmosphere but the freighter that we _borrowed_ will probably have a much stronger transmitter and if it doesn't all we have to do is get in orbit around Shi and then we can call them up" he explained. The former Ghost trainee nodded with a small smile on her face, it would be very interesting to see some of her old friends again, well all of them except for that lecherous asshole Morgan Calabas of course.

"Who the hell's Morgan Calabas?" Andrew blurted out having accidentally scanned Nova's thoughts. Nova looked over at him with a startled expression again. Realizing his blunder Andrew began to apologize "Ah I'm sorry but your thoughts just kind of slipped out for a moment I didn't mean to-" he started but Nova waved it off.

"It's alright I accidentally teep people's thoughts all the time" she assured before continuing "As for your question, Morgan was a member of the Old Families back on Tarsonis, he was for lack of better terms an attempted suitor" she said not really noticing that her explanation of Morgan was making Andrew's fists to clench a little while he felt a tinge of jealousy surge through his body for a moment before he regained control of himself. For a second Andrew wondered why he was even jealous, after all Nova was just a good friend, right?

Not noticing Andrew's mental outburst due to the mental wall around his thoughts Nova continued "He tried to be considerate and everything that a girl would want it was pretty easy to tell that the guy just wanted to get under my skirt, you wouldn't imagine the things he thought about when he was around me" she said her eyes narrowing with each word she said.

Andrew raised an eyebrow, he should have suspected something like that "Ah, I see so he was that kind of a guy" he realized before he got a grin on his face and asked "Hey if we do end up meeting him do you want me to punch him in the face for you?" Nova put on a thoughtful look for a moment and for a moment, actually considered it, then she almost laughed at the thought of that happening.

"Tempting but no thanks, that idiot can barely survive criticism from others, so I doubt that he'd be able to survive a punch to the face" she said jokingly. "I'll try to keep that in mind but I hope for his sake that he doesn't think any of _those_ kinds of thoughts around either of us, you're a person not some sort of sex object that's meant to be ogled at all the time" he said sincerely. Nova blushed once again at that.

Before Nova could respond to Andrew's last statement, the young rebel operative hopped off of the communications terminal that he had been using and started to make his way towards the exit and said "Alright, let's go back to the ship, the fuel pods should be more than halfway finished filling up by now and besides, I think that we should try and get into contact with your friends"

Nova nodded and followed him to the exit.

* * *

-Stolen Dominion Freighter, Cockpit-

* * *

Only just a few minutes later after another Andrew had finally managed to detach the refueling unit they were back in the freighter's cockpit trying their best to get a signal out so that they could contact the nearby planet of Shi. However the only thing that they were able to do was get mostly static. Andrew kept flipping through the communications channels while Nova sat patiently yet eagerly nearby, it was very clear that she wanted to see her old friends again.

After a while Andrew started to flip through the channels hoping to get some kind of com traffic from one of Shi's mining facilities but he found nothing. He was about to make the freighter take off and head for the other planet in order to see if they could get a better signal when a transmission finally came through over audio although it was somewhat garbled through static.

"Help us…if anyone…hear this…are in the solar flare bunker…Zerg…trying to tunnel in…help!" the voice over the other line pleaded. Nova was about to hit the respond button but Andrew grabbed her hand stopping her from sending the transmission.

"What are you doing?!" the blond telepath/telekinetic demanded before she continued "We have to tell them that we're coming for them!?" she exclaimed wondering why he was doing this. Before she could go on Andrew calmly explained further.

"They won't hear us Nova, we're too far away for us to send a message that wouldn't be completely garbled up with white noise, we're going to help them but we need get into the planet's orbit in order to find out for sure what the hell's going on and then we can formulate a rescue plan from there"

That answer seemed to satisfy Nova enough for her to calm down a bit and take a seat along with Delta and Colin as the ship took off from the abandoned mining complex and headed for Shi.

To be continued


	7. Rescue Mission part 2

StarCraft Ghost Warrior

Chapter 7

The Rescue part 2

A/N: I finally decided to give the stolen freighter a name, the Swift Messenger.

Also I know that there have been a couple of reviewers have recently expressed concern that the Battle of Shi was when Tosh started to get doubts about the Dominion and without him being present at the battle and the Old Family children being rescued the reviewers have expressed fear that he won't have a valid reason to turn on the Dominion. However rest assured that I have plans for good 'ol Tosh that involves a far more disturbing scenario that will be sure to all but shatter Tosh's faith in the Dominion government.

* * *

-Stolen Dominion Freighter, high orbit above Shi-

* * *

It took them almost an hour but finally the stolen freighter was within communications distance of Shi. Inside the cockpit Colin was sitting down on one of the chairs struggling to remain calm. The boy had seen the Zerg several times before and knew full well of the things that they were capable of and had seen a lot of people become brutally butchered by them.

Delta was looking over at Nova with a very concerned expression. The older sister figure in her life was pacing back and forth impatiently and anxiously. For everybody else that was in the cockpit it was easy to detect the large amount of anxiety that was all but radiating from Nova's thoughts.

After a while it seemed that Nova wouldn't be loosening up anytime soon Andrew let out a sigh and said "Nova, please try and calm down a little, we're in communications range, just have a seat and try to relax a little, I promise we'll get your friends out in one piece".

Somehow that made Nova feel a little bit more assured than she had been feeling just a few seconds earlier. Andrew reached for the communications unit and flipped a switch. The very instant that Andrew flipped the switch that activated the communications terminal the desperate, pleading voices of the Kusinis twins filled the audio receivers.

"Please if anyone can hear us please help!" the male twin, Rockham, if Andrew was correct with the name, begged which was soon followed by the female of the two speaking up as well "T-there's a big reward for rescuing us!" even though the freighter's communication system only allowed audio rather than visual communications like most Terran ships did it was easy to tell that the girl had been crying.

Andrew immediately spoke into the microphone the moment that he heard the two pleading for someone to help them over the communications link "This is lieutenant Andrew Cole of the Swift Messenger, we received your distress call, to who am I speaking with?" he announced. There was a pause on the end of the line as though who were speaking couldn't believe that their calls and prayers for help had been answered.

"This is Rockham and Bess Kusinis, thank god you're here, we were starting to think that there wasn't anyone coming. We're in the solar flare bunker, how long until you can get to us?" said Rockham still in disbelief that someone had actually managed to pick up on their distress beacon.

"I'm not entirely sure yet, just hold tight for a little while longer, we'll get you out of there" Andrew promised before he looked over at the sensors console area of the cockpit and started to use the ship's scanners to get a better idea of what it was that they were going to be facing once they set down onto the planet.

Although the Swift Messenger was a military vessel it was still just a freighter so most of its electronic equipment wasn't exactly state of the art. Because of this the scanning of the area took a bit longer than Andrew and the others would have liked but it couldn't be helped. After a few minutes the scanning finally finished and Andrew saw what appeared to be a large cluster of hatcheries that were all centered very close to one another.

Each of the hatcheries were being guarded by what looked like spore crawlers as well as several large groups of zerglings and hydralisks but at least there weren't any combat capable flyers in the area for which everyone was thankful for. Andrew frowned at the sight of the horde of Zerg that were in the area and once he saw the Zerg that were by the refinery where the transmission had originated from.

A direct assault on either the hatcheries or the refinery would be suicide without a hell of a lot of backup or at least a few dozen nukes to burn all of the hatcheries from orbit. The only things that they had that could do any real damage to the hatcheries were the crucio shock cannon shells that Andrew had found while snooping around the cargo hold of the freighter. The only problem was that they had no launching system for the explosives.

After thinking of a delivery mechanism for a few moments Andrew quickly recalled that there was a large number of escape pods built into the freighter. Each one was more than big enough to carry at least a full squad of marines wearing CMC powered combat armor which was large enough for several cruicio shells.

What was even better was that he remembered that the escape pods could also be operated by remote from the ship which allowed the ship's commanding officer to decide when and where the pods would land so there was no need for any insane kamikaze stunts.

Once their makeshift bombs were sent down to the Zerg hatcheries in the area they would have at most a thirty minute window to go in and extract any survivors that were in the refinery before the Zerg wised up and figured out that there wasn't going to be a follow up ground strike to their orbital bombardment maneuver.

Andrew then drew up a list of possible landing zones for the freighter, almost all of the closer ones were simply too close to areas that groups of Zerg were patrolling for any of them to be a viable landing site. However there was one LZ that was far enough away from the Zerg but was also relatively close to the refinery.

After landing they would take the APC to the refinery and pick up the Kusinis twins along with any other survivors in the area. Once that had been finished they would head back to the Swift Messenger and get the hell out of there. Andrew turned and looked right at Nova and the others and told them of his plan. The moment that he was finished they all looked at him with almost incredulous expressions on their faces.

Before any of them could say anything though Andrew spoke up "Look I know full well that it sounds like a bit of a long shot, for all we know the Zerg may not even fall back to the hatcheries after we've dropped our makeshift bombs onto them but this is probably our best option right now" he explained.

The rest of the group looked at each other as if silently debating it amongst themselves. After several long seconds Nova spoke up, "Alright I don't know about Delta and Colin but I'm in" she declared. Not two seconds afterwards Delta declared that she was more than willing to follow along with the plan as well the same with Colin who looked even more nervous than he did earlier.

Andrew noted that and wondered why that was to himself. Then he mentally smacked himself, how could he have been so forgetful about that little tidbit of information that he had been given by Corbin Phash before Andrew left on this mission. Colin had come within inches of being murdered by the Zerg several times and since they were going up against Zerg it was probably drudging up a lot of bad memories for the kid.

Looking over at Colin, Andrew gave the kid a sympathetic look "Colin you're not going out there, you're going to be staying with the ship, okay, you'll be safe" he explained which managed to calm Colin down a little bit. Andrew then handed him a small device that everyone instantly recognized to be a psi-screen which would block out the psionic emanations that Ghosts gave off and said "I suggest that you put this on so that the Zerg won't be able to detect you"

Andrew had been informed from some of the Umojan spies who had dug up some information on Colin that the Zerg were especially attracted to him for some unknown reason, and he'd rather not have a massive Zerg horde coming down upon them like some kind of dark tide while they attempted their little rescue mission.

The psionic quickly put such thoughts out of his head when he heard Colin speak up "I-I-I don't n-n-need that, I-I can just use my quiet voice, t-that w-w-way the Z-Zerg won't even know I'm here" he explained. Andrew blinked confused, he hadn't heard of that kind of a telepathic ability before "What's a quiet voice?" he asked seemingly very curious as to what kind of an ability that Colin had.

The seven year old telepath looked down for a moment and hesitated for a few moments in an attempt to find a way to explain his astral projection capabilities but he was a little nervous. Andrew noticed the boy's hesitation and decided that it would probably be for the best if he didn't try and continue to push the kid into answering his question.

"Look, if you don't want to tell me then you don't have to Colin, just stay aboard the ship and no matter what happens, do not come out after us, understand?" Colin quickly nodded. "Alright, Nova, Delta meet me in the cargo bay, we're going to need to load the cruicio shells onto the escape pods now if we want to have any real hope of rescuing your friends" Andrew explained before the three of them headed straight for the cargo hold while Colin stayed inside the cockpit.

* * *

-Ghost Academy, preceptor Soohoo's Classroom-

* * *

Just a few moments earlier the newly reformed team Blue had taken their seats inside preceptor Soohoo's classroom. The elderly preceptor as well as Sarco Angelini were both about to give a lecture about how Ghosts were used in combat during both the Confederacy in comparison as to how they're used now in the Dominion.

The only one that was part of Blue team that appeared to be absent however was Lio Travski. However Amelia was the only one who decided to bring it up "Am I the only one who seems to have noticed that Lio's absent again?" she whispered as to not interrupt the preceptor's lecture.

Tosh however just shrugged his bulky shoulders and whispered back to his comrade "I guess he still has food poisoning from-"

"Tosh get real nobody get's food poisoning two days in a row" said Kath not letting Tosh finish his sentence considering that was what each of them were thinking. Hell even Tosh had to admit that the whole food poisoning thing looked pretty damned fishy to him.

After all someone's chances of getting food poisoning two straight days in a row were incredibly small at best. The dreadlocked trainee was about to respond to Kath when he heard the elderly preceptor speak up again "Now I'd like to allow superintendent Sarco Angelini to take over from here" Soohoo stated. Sarco limped forward his footing being supported by the cane he was now using much more commonly.

While Sarco continued to limp his way forwards to the center of the stage area of the room Tosh grew somewhat curious. Why was the man even using a cane, Sarco had never needed to use one before, so why did he have to use one now?

It was also a pretty strange coincidence that the superintendent had started to use a cane almost immediately after that gas explosion had taken the lives of Nova, Delta and Andrew. However Tosh quickly and logically concluded that the two instances had nothing to do with one another. Sarco had probably just had a bad fall or something similar recently and had probably ended up injuring his leg in the process.

However Tosh put those thoughts behind him and continued to focus on what the superintendent was talking about. Sarco started to compare how both the Confederacy and the Dominion differed in their strategies in regards to Ghost operatives but didn't get far in his lesson because the entrance to the classroom that the preceptors normally took in slid open and the director of the Ghost Academy, Kevin Bick himself stepped into the room.

"Sarco I'm sorry to interrupt but I need to speak with you immediately" he declared with a tone of absolute seriousness in his voice. The look on his face also told Sarco that trying to argue with the man would be a very bad idea at best.

The Ghost Academy's superintendent looked a little hesitant at first but then he looked over at the rest of the class and said "I apologize but it looks as though that we're going have to finish this up some other time" he said before he followed Bick straight out the door. The two of them walked down the halls as quickly as they could before they reached an elevator. Once inside Sarco began to demand some answers out of his superior.

"Would you mind telling me what the hell was so important that you needed to interrupt me during-" however he never got a chance to finish his question since Bick quickly and bluntly answered without even listening in to what it was that Sarco was saying to him "We're going to readmit Aal Cistler" to say that this was a shock was and understatement.

Sarco had thought that they had gotten rid of that trouble maker why in the hell would Bick want him back here to cause another mess?

"Are you serious?" Sarco demanded, hoping to god or whoever was listening that this whole thing was some sort of sick joke from the director. However the superintendent had no such luck, Bick's face remained very serious "We don't have any other choice in the matter. He's already on his way now with three senators and his father" Bick explained.

Sarco could immediately feel a preemptive headache coming on. As if things weren't bad enough with several of the most promising trainees escaping to who knew where but now they had to deal with that rich little bastard once again?

It was to be expected he supposed, after all with Aal's father as Emperor Mengsk's finance minister along with the holos that Aal had made which were currently being aired on UNN about how Aal had been set up it was obvious that they hadn't escaped the little rat bastard just yet.

The elevator door opened and the two walked out into the main courtyard of the Ghost Academy. Almost directly in front of the two there was a massive crowd of reporters all of whom were trailing right behind Aal Cistler who was wearing that same pompous smirk he always liked to wear on his face whenever he got his way. Behind Cistler was his father along with the three senators and their bodyguards.

"This is the last thing we need right now" muttered Sarco as he and Bick approached the crowd that was in front of them "Shut up" Bick muttered back. He didn't need that sort of an attitude from Sarco at the moment especially with three senators as well as the fincance minister in the vicinity. Aal marched right up to the two of them with a document in his hand that had been signed by the three senators along with the finance minister himself.

"Director Bick, superintendent Angelini, I'm here to resume my studies" he announced as he handed over the document over to the director still giving that same irritating look that almost everyone who knew him came to dislike as he made his next remark "As you know the _evidence_ that had been presented against me was seriously lacking in merit"

While the director looked over the document reading through the terms and everything regarding Aal's return to the Ghost Academy Sarco looked over at the three senators as well as Aal's father and explained "We'll take all of this under consideration of course, it'll take some time to make sure this all goes through the proper channels"

One of the senators however didn't seem to care about any of that at the moment "He's to be readmitted, immediately" he said in a firm, commanding tone. However Sarco continued to speak not being one to kowtow to a bunch of politicians "Yes of course, but there are procedures and this is highly irregular" he explained. Unfortunately for Bick and Sarco all of the individuals gathered there knew that something like this may very well end up happening, another senator spoke up this time with a warning tone to his voice.

"There should also be one more thing that you should be made aware of, the finance minister will be reviewing your budget records, so you should really make sure that everything is in order, especially your personal finance records" Bick knew for a fact that all of his finance records were spotless, however from what he knew about that greedy jackal, the man would probably end up fabricating something that would send him to prison for quite a while.

Seeing as how there was no other alternative Bick let out a sigh "Very well, welcome back mister Cistler" he said knowing that once Aal was back in the Ghost Academy he'd somehow end up starting even more trouble for them. A few minutes later the group was inside the academy getting some last minute things out of the way "So we have your assurances?" one of the senators asked.

"Absolutely senator" Sarco promised but the senator continued on anyways just to make sure that he drove the point across to the two of them "I mean it, there won't be any brain-panning, mind adjustment or any transformational therapies occurring to mister Cistler" he said listing off some of the many 'behavioral and personality adjustment' activities that the Ghost Academy had been well known for doing back during the days of the Confederacy.

Bick gave the senator that had just given him and his subordinate a rather long do-not list, a look of mock outrage "Senator I'm highly offended at these implications, we would never do anything like that to our students here" as the group continued to talk amongst themselves Aal noticed that there was a familiar individual walking nearby.

It was Kath who was heading towards what Aal assumed to be her next class and as she walked there with her friends she saw Cistler. Once eye contact was made Aal gave her that same annoyingly smug grin he liked to give people who had wronged him as well as an abbreviated wave.

Kath scowled at him but otherwise ignored the slimy little snake and continued on to her next class. Aal didn't stop smirking even though he knew that she wasn't looking at him. The son of the finance minister intended on showing that little bitch exactly what happened to those that decided to try and spurn him. But it wasn't just Kath he intended on targeting for his little revenge scheme, Aal was fully intent on making everyone on his former team's lives a much a living hell as possible while he was at the academy.

"So," said Aal as he looked back to the director and superintendent "What team am I going to be on?" he asked curiously. The director looked relatively impassive at Aal's question "I hadn't really considered a team for you" but Aal waved the guy off having already picked the perfect team which had almost as much dislike for Blue team as he did. "Team Red please, I want to make things right. With everyone" Aal said cryptically while he stroked his goatee with a sinister look on his face.

* * *

-Stolen Dominion freighter, the Swift Messenger, Cargo bay-

* * *

After getting suited up in their armor they began to move the crucio shock cannon shells into the escape pods. Despite the fact that they only had three people for the job moving the cruicio shells was proceeding remarkably quickly. The Automated Loading Unit (ALU) which was basically a moderately sized robotic cart. ALUs were capable of lifting very heavy loads for people and taking them throughout different kinds of ships.

The reason for this was because that SCVs were simply too big and too bulky to fit into the corridors of Terran manufactured ships. All that the occupants of the ship needed do was guide the Automated Loading Unit to where they needed to take the shells.

"Alright people let's keep moving we're almost done here!" Andrew announced as he moved one of the shells onto another ALU. Over the past twenty five minutes they had been cramming as many of the shells as they could right into each of the escape pods.

Andrew could tell that Nova was getting really anxious about all of this. She was worried that her friends would be overrun by the Zerg by the time that they got there despite all his efforts to assure her that everyone would make it out of this alive. Once the last of the shells had finally finished loading onto their makeshift missiles Andrew turned around and headed back towards the cockpit of the freighter. As he walked there he felt that Nova was close by, judging by how anxious the thoughts that he had detected.

Sure enough Andrew practically bumped right on into Nova but managed to avoid impacting her at the last second. Both of their faces were now almost inches away from one another. If Andrew hadn't managed to avoid impacting Nova the two of them may very well have ended up in an 'intimate' position with one another.

It took a few seconds for both of them to realize this little tidbit of information and when they did the two teenagers' faces started to do a very good impression of overly ripe tomatoes. Neither of them said anything for a few moments before Andrew having seemingly found his voice and he spoke up albeit with a hint of both awkwardness and nervousness in his tone "Uh, Nova, what exactly are you doing here?" he asked in an attempt to get his thoughts away the fact that the two of them came very close to kissing, albeit accidentally.

Nova rubbed the back of her head and looked off to the side a bit while blushing before answering Andrew's question "I was looking for you, we've already gotten everything loaded up onto the pods so we should all get to the cockpit" she said a little awkwardly, it was obvious that her mind was also trying to get its thoughts away from what had almost happened to the two of them just a couple of moments ago too.

"Alright then let's go" said Andrew before he lead the blond telepath back to the freighter's cockpit. The trip wasn't' that long since most of the escape pods were positioned very close to the ship's living compartments which were just a few dozen meters away from the freighter's cockpit.

Once Andrew entered the cockpit of the ship he walked over to the navigation system and began to input the destinations for their makeshift bombs. Once at the navigation system he looked over at the map of the area surrounding the abandoned refinery. As Andrew looked at the map he saw that the Zerg hatcheries were primarily concentrated in a canyon several miles to the west of the refinery.

Andrew quickly selected the drop points for each of the six pods which were primarily targeted at large concentrations of idle Zerg or the hatcheries themselves. The explosions from the crucio shells wouldn't be nearly enough to destroy the hatcheries. It would take several dozen direct hits from crucio artillery shells to do something like that.

However it would most likely kill the Zerg that were guarding the hatcheries. Although the overlords that were flying around nearby would probably be relatively safe from the blasts which would be a pain if Andrew and the others needed to use their cloaking emitters against the Zerg.

Andrew also briefly considered the possibility that the overlords would try and use themselves as shields to protect the hatcheries and the other Zerg organisms that were on the ground but quickly pushed that thought away.

Andrew found it unlikely that since the hive cluster appeared to be fairly young considering that there were only some of the smaller ground based Zerg organisms were in the area. Once Andrew was directly over the target in high orbit he hit the button that sent the makeshift bombs down towards the surface.

Not wasting anymore time Andrew began to maneuver the freighter towards their landing zone that was several miles away from the opposite side of the old mining complex which put them far enough away from the primary and secondary Zerg hive clusters. The ship began to make its descent into Shi's atmosphere and of course it began shaking since they were passing through the planet's gravitational field which would make for a very bumpy ride going through the atmosphere.

Andrew heard the telltale sounds of nauseous groaning coming from the backseat of the ship and Andrew knew immediately that Colin was the one who was desperately trying to avoid vomiting all over the cockpit. Immediately Andrew thanked god that he had the foresight to give the kid a moderately sized bag just in case Colin became nauseous again while reentering the atmosphere.

After a few more seconds of turbulence the freighter's finally ceased shaking and it flew a bit less violently than it had been earlier. Curious as to how Colin was handling the atmospheric entry Andrew spoke up "You feeling alright Colin?" he asked.

Colin hesitated for a few seconds before responding "Y-yeah I-I'm fine t-t-thank you" he managed to stutter out. With that said Andrew continued to lower the ship's altitude until they were roughly one mile and a half miles east of the mining complex where the distress signal had been sent out.

"Nova, Delta you're with me" Andrew ordered much to Delta's surprise. She was honestly expecting him to tell her to stay with the ship again. Delta felt that she had to confirm this just to be sure "You mean that I'm coming with you two? Seriously?" she asked not really believing what it was that she was hearing. Once they had escaped from the Ghost Academy they hadn't really let Delta or Colin do anything dangerous but it seemed that this was about to change, for Delta at least.

"Are you sure about this, I don't think that she's ready for the Zerg" said Nova to which Andrew sighed "Nova, I can say with first hand experience that nobody is ever truly ready for the Zerg" he explained before turning to Delta "If you're going to come with us Delta I expect you to follow any order that I give you, understand?" Delta nodded before they all headed for the cargo bay.

* * *

-Ghost Academy, Gym-

* * *

Every Blue team member save for Lio who was still out sick from another bout of 'food poisoning' were standing right across from Red team. Each member of the team was giving the person that was directly across from them a very angry glare. However the only member of Red team that wasn't glaring at one of the other Blue team members was Aal who was actually giving Kath a smug looking grin like he normally did when things were going his way.

Preceptor Hartley was walking in front of both rows of trainees making sure that each of them had their psi-screens on them. The marine sergeant that was on loan to the Ghost Academy looked at Aal with a look of complete and utter distaste.

"Don't be so smug mister Cistler" Hartley ordered with that same tone that he seemed to always give to those that had earned his displeasure in some what before he continued "You're all going to pull together or you're all going to be pulled apart!"

Hartley then all but shouted the rules of the exercise "Alright, team Blue will face team Red one at a time!" he explained loudly before Cistler's grin intensified "Oh I'm going to just love this" he said looking straight at Kath and if looks could kill Cistler would be a pile of molten slag if the glare that Kath was giving him was anything to go by.

"What a Bastard" she muttered to herself. Ignoring the small banter Hartley then elaborated further on the exercise "You will all use hand to hand combat only, no psionic tricks, hence the psi-screens. You will do what you need to do to best your opponent. Now who's up first?" Seeing this as his chance to get a little bit of retribution against the girl who had spurned him a while back Aal looked over at the instructor and declared "I'll go first!" before giving the dark skinned telepath a few feet away from him a challenging gesture "And I challenge Kath!"

"That son of a bitch" Kath muttered before she and Aal approached each other and got into ready stances. Neither of the two combatants made a move at first each one trying to find an opening that they could exploit. After a couple of seconds Aal gave Kath a toothy grin that made the young woman want to punch every last one of his teeth clean out of his skull.

"Come on sweetheart, anytime now!" he declared while both teams cheered their respective teammates on.

At that little comment Kath's eyes narrowed into dangerous slits, Kath couldn't wait any longer for an opening she needed to beat the living shit out of that asshole _now_! Kath's anger overriding her better judgment she attempted a sweeping kick underneath Aal's legs with the hopes of knocking him over. There was no luck however as Cistler had quickly anticipated her doing this by her legs' movements before attempting that attack and easily jumped over the kick and proceeded to block each and every other strike that she attempted on him all the while goading her even more as he did.

Eventually Aal finally made his counter attack and grabbed Kath's leg when she attempted a roundhouse kick to his face. Aal pushed the outstretched leg up causing Kath to lose her balance and fall backwards onto the gym floor.

"I bet daddy didn't tell you that mine just had him arrested" Aal declared "Watch out for Sector Nine you little bitch" this caused Kath to lose whatever was left of her cool and charge straight at him with her fist pulled back into a striking position hoping to slam her fist right into his face. "Don't you _dare_ call me that again!" she screamed with pure fury.

However Aal easily sidestepped her and gave a karate chop with his left hand to the back of her neck sending her straight into the ground "Take that you bitch" he remarked.

Hartley then declared Aal the winner of the first round albeit with an tone that told everyone of his complete and utter distaste for Aal's attitude towards his now defeated opponent. Tosh and the other members of Blue team went over to help their injured comrade up "You alright Kath?" Tosh asked while helping Kath to her feet.

"Yeah I'm okay, thanks Tosh" she said as she stood up while rubbing the back of her neck gingerly. As Tosh helped up Kath, Amelia Ingram looked straight at Dylanna who had been grinning almost sadistically the entire time that Kath was being trounced by that Cistler asshole.

She was seriously enjoying the sight but clearly it wasn't because Kath was getting her ass kicked that she was grinning. Instead her eyes had been looking straight at Tosh the whole time, as if she knew that Tosh's teammates being hurt was making him hurt more than if he was the one receiving the blows.

Amelia had always had a unique ability along with her standard telepathy and limited telekinesis to tell what someone's intentions were just by how their body was moving. At the moment however Amelia didn't even need that little ability to see that Dylanna wanted to have Tosh get his ass royally handed to him.

However when Dylanna voiced out the next challenge it wasn't directed at Blue team's leader like he had originally thought. Instead it was directed straight at Amelia "Amelia Ingram you're up against me next!" she declared pointing at the girl before walking straight for her.

Amelia was more than prepared to face Dylanna's challenge head on when Tosh stepped directly in front of her "No you don't, you're going to be fighting me, I'm the one that you want to hurt" he declared before looking for approval from Amelia who just shrugged "Go ahead, I don't mind, just kick her ass" Amelia requested.

With that Tosh and Dylanna began to strike at each other neither of them giving in to their opponent in any way shape or form. Eventually though Dylanna saw an opening in Tosh's defenses and instantly went for it and sent her fist straight for Tosh's face. The punch impacted Tosh on the side of the head with such a force that it caused him to lose his balance and fall to the ground.

Dylanna looked at him with a similar look that Cistler liked to give Kath "Not so tough now are you?" she mocked her arms crossed across her chest as she leaned in a little. "You're…lucky" Tosh said trying to regain his wind while he gave Dylanna a hate filled glare "If it weren't…for the rules of hand-to-hand combat…you'd be dead…right now" he said in between breaths.

The rounds continued for another twenty minutes before preceptor Hartley had them all cease immediately "Alright listen up!" he shouted to make sure that he got their attention. "This was the easy part of your training, your next challenge will be a no holds barred combat simulation, it begins tomorrow so I suggest that you get ready for it!" he ordered.

And with that he ordered that they were all dismissed. Before they left however Tosh looked straight at Dylanna and muttered "Things are going to be different now, a _lot_ different I'll promise you that" Aal meanwhile just looked right at Kath and said "Looks like your daddy won't be able to protect you anymore little girl!" he taunted.

That remark instantly set Kath off and she rushed towards Aal again with the intent on breaking as many bones as she could in Aal's body, and she intended on starting with his jaw.

But before she could even make it more than two feet towards him however Hartley came between both of them and said "Both of you save it for the combat simulation tomorrow!" he ordered sternly which made Kath reluctantly stand down although she was still sorely tempted to try and rush him again. Aal started to stroke his goatee "Anticipation makes my heart glow, and there's still so much more I need to make right" he said.

* * *

-APC, currently en-route to abandoned mining facility on Shi-

* * *

Andrew was driving the APC while Delta manned the remote controlled gauss turret that was located on the roof of the vehicle and at the current moment she was scanning for anything that could remotely be considered a threat. Nova however was sitting down in one of the chairs and was wondering how Rockham and Bess were doing.

Hopefully the twins were still alive. After all Andrew had said that the explosions from the crucio shells that were loaded in those pods would have already reached the hive clusters and exploded by now. The amount of destruction that would be done to the hive clusters would be minimal at best but it would still be more enough to make the Zerg retreat from the refinery and head back to defend their base.

Nova only hoped that he was right and that the Zerg did indeed fall back to take up defensive positions at the hive clusters. If they didn't than they were all dead or worse, infested. Nova shuddered at the possibility of becoming infested. The very thought of her whole being twisted into something monstrous and her individuality stripped away into little more than a mindless beast that unquestioningly obeyed the Zerg swarm.

Once Nova finished that thought she soon realized something interesting, wasn't that what she wanted back at the Ghost Academy. After she had graduated she would have been given a memory wipe which would leave her as little more than blank slate that the Dominion military could mold into whatever they wished. In a disturbing sense the memory wipe procedure that all Ghost Operatives received was almost the same as infestation by the Zerg save for the physical changes.

Nova pushed those thoughts aside and looked down at her C10 canister rifle and checked the magazine. The young telepath/telekinetic already knew that the magazine had all forty rounds (A/N: seeing as how I am unsure as to how many rounds are in a standard C10 rifle so I'm just going to say that it's around forty rounds unless somebody here knows the exact number in which case please let me know) but to a certain extent examining the weapon sometimes had managed to help keep her mind off of the possibilities on what could have happened to the Kusinis twins since their last transmission was sent to the ship.

Given what the Zerg were capable of doing to the twins she found it to probably be best if she didn't think about the worst case scenarios of what may have happened before they even arrived there. However despite her best attempts to keep those kinds of thoughts out of her head Nova found it nearly impossible to do so.

The images of her childhood friends being devoured alive by the Zerg or worse infested continued to seep into her thoughts. Even now examining her weapon wasn't enough to keep her mind occupied.

Nova became so engrossed into her own thoughts that she didn't really notice Andrew who was trying to get her attention until he all but shouted her name "Nova!" he called breaking the blond telepath/telekinetic out of her zoned out state. The blonde telepath/telekinetic looked up from her rifle and over towards the other end of the APC where Andrew was driving while Delta was on the remote gunner seat, both of whom were looking at her worriedly.

"Please try and relax a little bit okay?" Andrew asked and although Nova couldn't see past his Ghost suit's mask or hear through the voice filter she could tell that he was very concerned about how she was doing. "Yeah, sure thing" she said a little uneasily as the APC's treads continued forwards.

Eventually they reached the refinery and Delta quickly became more alert than she was just a few minutes ago. The remote controlled gauss turret on top of the APC started to quickly swivel about even faster than it had been earlier. If the Zerg were indeed lying in wait for them than this would probably be the second best spot to lay an ambush for them.

There were plenty of titanium plated structures on both the left and right sides of the APC almost all of which were completely locked down, in what was most likely in a last ditch effort for the defenders to try and keep the Zerg from overrunning them. However it was obvious that this probably wouldn't have worked anyways seeing as how the Zerg had a habit of tunneling under defenses if they weren't able to get in the old fashioned way.

The APC stopped right outside the entrance that led into the solar flare bunker. The rear hatch opened up and Nova along with Andrew quickly stormed out of the vehicle with their weapons at the ready, prepared to open fire on anything that so much as looked like a Zerg.

Andrew hit the button on his head mounted communicator and spoke into his helmet's microphone "Delta, keep the perimeter secured while Nova and I extract the Kusinis twins" he ordered "Got it just make it back in one piece" Delta requested. Andrew gave an affirmative before both he and Nova entered the solar flare bunker.

It would be idiotic to say that the second that they walked into the entrance that lead into the bunker that the Kusinis twins were just standing there waiting for them. No instead Nova and Cole had to go down an elevator that connected the lowest part of the bunker to the surface access shaft.

As the elevator went downwards Andrew started to sense the thought patterns of who he assumed to be the Kusinis twins and he quickly noticed that Nova's demeanor quickly changed to one that was less tense. It was obvious that she had already sensed the twins' thought patterns as well. The elevator ride continued down in almost complete silence until it finally hit the solar flare bunker's main area. The doors opened up to reveal the Kusinis twins the male of whom was standing in front of the .

Both of them looked as though they had gone through hell. They both seemed as though they had barely eaten anything in several days, their hair was longer than Nova had remembered it being and was seriously unkempt. Rockham had what looked like five o'clock shadow on his cheeks and chin and Bess' cheeks were pink from what had to have been crying.

The first one to speak up was Rockham "Are you guys here to help us?" he asked noticing that they were both wearing Ghost armor which kept their faces from being seen. Andrew quickly replied his voice being changed by the modulator "Yes I'm lieutenant Cole, the guy you spoke with on the communicator are either of you hurt?" he asked. They both shook their heads no "Alright come with us we'll get you out of here" said Andrew before he and Nova both led them into the elevator.

As the elevator went upwards Andrew turned to Nova and sent _"Just out of curiosity why haven't you told them who you are yet?"_ he asked. Nova looked over at him _"It would probably be for the best if we saved the introductions for later, at least until we get back to the Swift Messenger"_ Andrew gave a slight nod at her response which made sense.

It would take way too much time to explain everything and it would be much easier to focus on getting everyone out of there than answering questions. Andrew activated the communications unit that was built into helmet of the Ghost armor that he was using "Delta we're on our way back up, any sign of hostiles?" he asked. Delta's response was immediate "No but I keep getting this weird feeling that something's out there, I think we should move this along"

"Got it call us if you see or sense anything out of the ordinary" said Andrew before he turned to look back over at the twins. Maybe they knew if there was anyone else was still alive in this hole "Are there any other survivors in the area or is it just you two?" Rockham and Bess then looked at each other before the female twin responded with a nervous look.

"We…don't really know, we saw a lot of our friends get torn to shreds out there by the Zerg but maybe some of them could have made it" she said but Rockham looked over at her like she was crazy "Are you nuts, the Zerg were all over them, there was no way in hell that any of them could have made it" he said his eyes wide with fear.

Despite Rockham's bleak look on their friends' current condition Bess still tried to cling onto the hope that at least some of them were still alive "You don't know that, if they made it to one of the dig sites they could have had a fighting chance!" she exclaimed. Andrew turned to Nova and said "Can you see if there are any other human thought patterns in the area? I'm not leaving here until we save as many as we can" Nova nodded and began to stretch out her consciousness to see if there were any other Terrans that were in the area.

Rockham and Bess both looked at each other wondering such a level of telepathy was even possible for someone. When they both saw Andrew and his companion's armor they knew immediately that they were Ghost operatives which were of course powerful psionics but they had always thought that they could just read minds, nothing else.

"Wait she can actually do that?" asked Rockham to which Andrew simply nodded "My teammate here has a psi index of ten and is one of the most powerful psionics outside of a Protoss if anyone can detect your friends she can" he said before Bess asked "Yeah but who is she anyways?" Andrew knew that question was coming since he hadn't introduced Nova yet. "I promise that all will be explained once we get out of here" he said.

Nova meanwhile simply ignored the three of them and continued to check for anything that resembled a human thought pattern. At first she didn't sense anything at all but then out of pure luck she found something. There were thought patterns. There were two others, Antonia Tygore and Morgan Calabas, they were close by, in an old dig site that wasn't too far from where they were.

However there wasn't any other humans that were still amongst the living. "There are two others near a dig site that's not far from here we can make it there and back to the freighter if we hurry" she explained. The elevator door opened and not wasting a second of what precious time that they had left Nova and Andrew sprinted ahead, taking the lead while the twins followed close behind them.

They soon reached the APC's ramp and the twins got in while Nova and Andrew covered them from outside before getting in the vehicle themselves. Nova and the other two passengers took their seats while Andrew walked towards the drivers chair as Delta scanned the area with the remote guided turret. "Hey where's the rest of the rescue team there's only three of you?" asked Rockham.

Before Andrew could get into the pilot seat he turned his head a little and attempted to reassure his passengers "What you see is what you get and it'll be enough, trust me I've fought the Zerg more times than I care to remember" he then got into the driver's seat and began to head for where Nova said she had sensed the other two survivors.

Nova meanwhile looked over at Rockham and Bess and could tell by their thoughts that the Kusinis twins had been hoping for a few platoons of marines and maybe even a couple of battle cruisers waiting for them and were now much more worried than they had been earlier.

"There's just the three of you?!" Rockham all but shouted while Bess looked even more scared than she had been earlier "At least tell us that you have a ship" she begged. "We have a ship that's big enough for everyone and it even has a warp drive" said Delta not taking her eyes off of the turret's POV (Point Of View) display unit.

Not wasting anymore time the APC set out towards the dig site where Antonia and Morgan had taken shelter in, nearly a week before Nova and the others had arrived at Shi. As they drove towards the dig site the passengers slowly became more and more on edge. They were broadcasting their thoughts so loudly that Nova started to wonder if she should have brought a psi-screen with her.

Eventually the APC reached the dig site, there still wasn't any sign of the Zerg but they were now a bit closer to the hive clusters than they were earlier and Andrew knew that it was only a matter of time before those bugs wizened up and knew that there was no follow-up attack to their improvised bombing campaign. When that happened the Zerg would probably head back out to secure more territory like the refinery which would provide them with the resources that they needed to expand. If that happened Andrew had his doubts that they would all be able to get back to the ship in one piece.

The APC's ramp lowered but before Nova could go out and get her friends a hand grabbed her shoulder keeping her from leaving the armored personnel carrier "I'll go and get Morgan and Antonia, you stay here and make sure that everyone here stays safe" Andrew ordered. Nova wanted to protest at first but she realized that he had a point, they were almost out of time and one person going down into the dig site would make things go a lot faster. With this in mind she nodded her head in agreement.

Not wasting any time Andrew rushed out towards the dig site. Nova went back into the APC and raised the ramp up behind her. As she walked back to the seat she could sense that the Zerg were starting to come back from their hive clusters and she knew full well what they would do when they found them.

To be continued

* * *

A/N: next we'll finally have some Zerg vs. Ghost action, originally I wanted to see if I could get the rescue finished with just this chapter but I found that I had to put it into a third part


	8. Rescue Mission Part 3

StarCraft: Ghost Warrior

Chapter 8

Rescue Part 3

* * *

-Baker's Dozen system, fourth planet, Shi, Mineral Dig Site Number 4-

* * *

It was painfully obvious to Andrew that their little rescue effort didn't really have much left in the way of time. He knew that the Zerg had already started to come out of their hive clusters. He could sense them leaving the vicinity of their bases and starting to approach their current position. The Ghost operative increased his running speed acordinglyh while he continued to sprint down into the dig site where the lone pair of Terran thought patterns were originating from.

If someone had told Andrew a few weeks ago that a few teenagers with no military training and no military weapons of any kind would last several weeks against the Zerg than he would have considered them to be complete and utter idiots. Andrew considered it a miracle that these pampered and quite possibly spoiled teenagers had managed to last as long as they did.

Putting those kinds thoughts out of his mind for the moment, Andrew decided to focus on the current task at hand. He was getting very close to the other two survivors but he could sense the Zerg were starting to close in and quickly picked up the pace.

As he headed for where the thought patterns were originatingfrom Andrew passed a lot of mining equipment which mostly consisted of SCVs, portable drilling units that were used by mine workers and even some equipment that was currently being used by the Kel-Morian Combine. Eventually Andrew found a small trailer office that the dig teams used if they were required to stay at the dig site for periods that were longer than twenty four hours.

Seeing as how the thought patterns were coming from over there he started to run over to that building hoping that they were ready to move out by the time he got there. As he ran towards the small living quarters his suit's audio sensors picked up the unmistakable sound of a shotgun being cocked and readied to fire. In that instant Andrew dove behind the relative safety of one of the SCVs as the ground a few feet away from he where he used to be standing on prior to making a break for the relative safety of the SCV was being riddled several dozen small pellets. Whoever the shooter was he was a obviously a horrific shot with that weapon.

'_Did I hit it, I'm sure I got that Zerg bastard!'_ thought the gunman who was now scanning the area for anything that looked like it was moving. Apparently the gunman had thought that Andrew was a Zerg. Andrew rolled his eyes almost immediately, was that moron blind or something, then again the dig site was underground and wasn't very well illuminated.

Under any other circumstances if Andrew was being shot at he would have returned fire without any hesitation on his part but seeing as how the idiot who had been shooting at him didn't realize that he was human and not a Zerg he would make an exception to that unspoken rule of his, this time at least.

Before the idiot that was using the shotgun whose thoughts betrayed him as Morgan Calabas could try and open fire on Andrew again the Ghost operative yelled out "Hold your fire I'm on your side you fucking moron!" the pair of thought patterns then turned from frightened and desperate to hopeful, they had all but given up on the possibility of rescue but now they had a chance to get out of this insanity alive!

It was clear to Andrew that the two Old Family members had been through hell and back having been forced to watch many of their friends die in front of them would most likely have left some psychological scars on them. The two of the surviving members of the Confederate Old Families came out of the shelter that they had been living in for the past couple of weeks. Andrew who was now confident that he wouldn't be shot at again came out of cover.

As Andrew got closer he saw the disheveled appearance of both of the teens. Their clothes of the two were both partially torn and almost completely covered in dirt and grime. Morgan Calabas' eyes had dark circles underneath them along with large bags as though he hadn't slept in days. There was also what looked like five o'clock shadow on his face.

Antonia Tygore's appearance wasn't much better. She too looked as though she hadn't slept in quite some time, her face was a tattered mess and her eyes were filled with a mixture of both fear and hope.

"Are you really here to help get us out of here?" Morgan asked with a look of disbelief on his face as he held the shotgun by its carrying strap in one arm as well as a small piece of luggage in the other that had a nametag that read "Nova" in bright cursive lettering. For a brief moment Andrew wondered why that was but he'd look into why he was carrying something around that belonged to Nova later.

Andrew nodded in response before Antonia who although was never really someone who would look a gift horse in the mouth was curious as to how this individual had managed to find them as well as who had sent him to this hellhole. "How exactly did you find us? Did our parents send you?" she asked curiously. That last question had definitely managed to throw Andrew for a loop. Didn't they know that the entirety of the Confederate Old Families had been dead for quite some time now?

When Mengsk had finally overthrown the Confederacy by using the Zerg to slaughter those who lived on Tarsonis he made an announcement which had been broadcasted all over the Korprulu Sector that he had taken over what was left of the Confederacy and that he was now creating the Terran Dominion. Andrew knew that the Baker's Dozen was a fringe system that bordered the Kel'Morian Combine and was to a point, somewhat isolated but had these kids really been _that_ isolated for the past year and a half?

For a few fleeting seconds Andrew had considered letting these two know that their families had been dead for a little over a year now and that the only reason that he and the rest of the ragtag rescue party were even there was because that they had been fortunate enough to have found out about the Old Families' children being on Shi to begin with. However they weren't ready for that and it would be very difficult to assist someone who had just heard something as life changing as the fact that their parents had just been killed.

Deciding that it would probably be for the best if he left answers to those kinds of questions for later Andrew gave his response "I'll explain everything once we're off planet, for the moment we need to get the hell out of here" Andrew then lead the two of the last remaining survivors back to the APC.

* * *

-APC, located directly Outside of Mineral Dig Site Number 4-

* * *

Nova was starting to get even more nervous than the other three occupants of the APC. The Zerg were steadily getting closer to their position and Andrew still wasn't back from retrieving Morgan and Antonia from the dig site yet. Everyone inside was getting anxious while they waited, the twins especially, Nova and Delta hadn't told them about how close the Zerg were getting to their position, it didn't take a telepath to sense the amount of fear and anxiety that was all but radiating from them.

Nova looked over at them and asked "Are you two alright?" her voice being disguised by the voice modulator in her Ghost armor. The Kusinis twins looked up and it was obvious to Nova that neither of them were feeling 'alright' and that they never would be the same people that Nova had grown up knowing ever since she was a young child again.

After scanning them she found that they had watched their friends get torn apart before their very eyes and had spent the next couple of weeks hiding from the Zerg in a small bunker deep underground hoping that someone would hear their message and come to their rescue even as the Zerg slowly started to burrow their way towards them.

The first of the twins that was able to speak up was Rockham "What's taking that Andrew guy so long?" he asked before his twin sister piped up as well "Yeah I thought that he'd have been back by now" she agreed her tone still very frightened. Not knowing what to say at first Nova was quiet for a few seconds before she made an attempt to ease some of their fears.

"Look Andrew Cole is one of the best Ghost operatives that I know he'll be back here with your friends really soon I promise" true Nova didn't know any Ghosts outside of the other trainees in the academy but seeing as how Andrew had been fighting since he was fifteen he had a little over two years of experience in fighting the Zerg and despite Nova's own concerns, was sure that Andrew would come out of there with both Antonia Tygore and Morgan Calabas in tow.

Just a few moments later Nova's faith in Andrew had been vindicated when Andrew sent _"I have your friends, we're on our way out of the dig site now"_ Nova quickly made her way over to the ramp and looked out the small metal slot of a window that was on the ramp and out towards the entrance to the dig site. Every second that she stood there felt like an eternity and just when she considered to try and ask him where he currently was she saw three individuals exit the dig site.

It was Andrew and directly behind him was Morgan and Antonia. Not wasting any time Nova pushed a button on the wall next to the ramp which caused the ramp to lower until it was able to allow Andrew and the two other survivors access to the APC. As they ran towards the APC Nova heard Delta yell "Zerglings!" before Nova heard the tell tale sound of a zergling's high pitched shrieking before the turret on top of the armored personnel carrier opened fire on the source of the sounds.

Knowing that Andrew was going to need some covering fire Nova ran outside of the APC and turned over to where the sounds had come from and saw that the Zerg were coming from the west. Going into a crouch Nova looked through the scope of her C-10 rifle and targeted the zergling that was closest to the APC and fired off a shot the recoil of the weapon forcing the stock back into her shoulder.

Nova's aim was true, the explosive round that came from the C-10 canister rifle went into the shrieking zergling's mouth and one it struck the soft innards of the monster caused the thing's head to explode in small a shower of gore over a good three or four feet radius. Nova was about to line up another shot at the next closest Zergling when Delta, who was still using the APC's remote control gauss turret beat her to the punch and riddled several zerglings including the one that Nova had almost shot with dozens of fist sized holes.

As Delta shifted through individual targets she didn't stop firing even when the target went down and she was getting her sights lined up on another one. Each and every shot that missed the Zerg kicked up a lot of dust and small pieces of dirt. The blond telepath/telekinetic continued to hold off the Zerg for another ten seconds before she heard the other two survivors going up the ramp and into the APC behind her. Andrew was still outside of the vehicle however taking shots at any Zerg that was foolish enough to get too close to their vehicle.

Less than a moment later a small number of hydralisks had arrived in the combat area seemingly to provide support for the zerglings that were already there trying to overrun them one of the closer hydralisks lowered its head a little as though it was bowing to them.

This was a telltale sign that the hydralisks were going to fire their spines at them. Not wasting any time Nova quickly sprinted away from where the hydralisk was aiming even as the sharp bony projectiles were fired from the hydralisk's carapace and impacted the APC's armor similar to how someone would throw darts onto board. The hydralisk let out what Nova assumed to be an irritated hiss that its prey had managed to escape.

Nova fired off five shots from her canister rifle, the first shot hit one of the scythe like arms in the elbow joint, blowing the creature's arm, three impacted the creature's torso causing several fist sized holes to open up causing near irreparable damage to the creature but the fifth and final shot hit the monstrosity right in the left eye socket going straight into the brain before the round exploded taking the rear portion of the monster's head with it.

"_Nova, it's time to get the hell out of here, get in the APC NOW!"_ Andrew sent urgently as he fired off another burst from his C-10 into the face of a nearby zergling. Nova quickly complied with the order and headed back into the APC reloading her weapon as she went. Andrew kept firing off rounds at the Zerg fully intent on killing as many as he could before he raised the ramp that lead to the inside of the APC all the while Delta from her spot inside the APC continued to use the remote control turret to provide some semblance of suppressing fire against the Zerg.

Taking a quick look around he saw that the Old Family children were safe in their seats and that Nova was sitting down as well. Andrew ran up to the driver's seat and upon sitting down floored the gas pedal. The engine of the APC made a revving noise while the tires squealed against the dirt floor of the area in protest against the sudden order that had been given to them by the driver.

Seconds later the squealing of the tires stopped and the APC rushed ahead as fast as the engine would allow it to go. As the APC rushed ahead the Zerg quickly ran out of the way of the large machine but a couple of zerglings weren't able to get out of the way in time and were immediately either squished underneath the APC's tires or even splattered against the front bumper, the alien's blood giving the front of the APC a macabre new paintjob.

Although the hydralisks and the zerglings were indeed rather fast, they were unable to keep up with the APC's current speeds and instead the hive sent them an unseen and unhearable signal that ordered them along with several of their other brethren to move to the location where their fleeing prey would most likely be heading.

The Terrans would never live to see their ship.

* * *

-Ghost Academy Courtyard-

* * *

Seeing as how most of the trainees had finished up the rest of their classes almost all of them were out in the courtyard doing whatever it was they did when they had some time off and this was no exception for Tosh and the rest of Blue team. During what little time they had when they weren't studying in class the older team members usually spent it trying to get to know their new teammates and vice versa.

Unlike most Ghost Academy recruits Alejandro had been fully aware of his abilities ever since he was nine years old never once told anyone about it and hid his talents as best he could from his relatives.

Alejandro Curze's family were all ranchers that had lived on the Mar-Sara colony for several generations. This however meant that he and his folks had been driven off of it shortly after the Zerg had arrived. During the two years that went on during both the Great War and the Brood War his family had drifted from place to place trying to find a new place in which to settle. Eventually they arrived on another fringe colony which was known as Agria.

Although despite finding a new home Alejandro wasn't able to stay there for very long. Less than a month after their arrival on Agria the Dominion somehow managed to find out about his psionic talents that he had been doing his best to hide from everyone, including his own family.

A Wrangler by the name of Malcolm Kelerchian was sent in to 'recruit' him. Although the Wrangler had tried his best to negotiate with Alejandro's parents and his two older siblings and make them listen to reason when he came to their home to take Alejandro away from his family. Unfortunately his family had none of it. Alejandro's elder siblings and their parents gathered what weapons they had, a few civilian hunting rifles and shotguns and proceeded to barricade most of the house and prepared themselves for a fight.

The Wrangler was soon forced to call in for backup and two squads of marines showed up from one of the nearby bases in full CMC power armor which was most likely just there for little more than intimidation and dramatic effect. A tense standoff began that lasted almost eighteen hours. Although Alejandro's parents and siblings would've liked nothing more than to go out blasting they knew that their low tier weapons wouldn't have even make a dent in the marines' armor.

The marines meanwhile more than likely just wanted nothing more than to go in there and kill anyone who resisted before dragging Alejandro out of that house. The only thing that seemed to stop them was that the Wrangler who'd wanted the crisis to be resolved peacefully.

Eventually Alejandro came outside on his own and surrendered to the Wrangler on the condition that his family wouldn't be charged with anything. The Wrangler agreed and despite his family's protests Alejandro left the house and was taken to the Ghost Academy the very next day.

Amelia Ingram's story wasn't nearly as dramatic as Alejandro's had been but it was still quite interesting nonetheless. Unlike Alejandro who was able to keep his talents near perfectly hidden from others for a while, Amelia's parents had always suspected that there had been something odd with their daughter.

When she was fourteen one of the Dominion's Wranglers came to take their daughter away they didn't put up much of a fight and neither did Amelia since the Wrangler allowed them to have a quick tearful farewell first before he took the kid away to become the Terran Dominion's newest weapon of war.

Once the rest of Blue team had got the info on how they had been selected by the Ghost Academy continued to walk around for a while trying to come up with a plan about what they should do about the training mission coming up until Kath pointed to someone that was approaching them.

"Is that Lio?" she asked in a tone that suggested that she wasn't really believing what it was that she was seeing. Tosh looked over to where Kath had been gesturing at and like the lovely dark skinned woman next to him he was very surprised at what he saw and briefly wondered if his eyesight had been seriously damaged somehow during Blue team's last training exercise.

Lio was acting exactly the opposite of how he used to act around others. For a second both Tosh and Kath wondered if they were actually looking at Lio and not someone who just happened to look like him. The bald boy's whole demeanor didn't even resemble the normal scatterbrained geek that they had known ever since he had been brought to the Ghost Academy. Instead he had a confidant grin on his face and a determined look in his eyes as though he felt that he could take on the whole planet and come out even.

The only ones that didn't seem all that surprised about Lio's new demeanor were the two new arrivals. Probably because up until now they hadn't seen Lio before and didn't think much of it. "Hey you two must be the new guys that were assigned to our team" said Lio as he proceeded to introduce himself "My name's Lio Travski, welcome to team Blue" he said before the two other new arrivals introduced themselves while Lio got out a few electronic notepads.

"Now down to business, we need to get ready for the next training mission" he said before tossing all of the notepads into the air. For a moment the rest of the team wondered what the hell he was doing by throwing pieces of electronics around. However much to everyone's shock the electronic notepads defied gravity and didn't hit the ground, instead they floated a little more than three feet off of the ground in midair.

Kath just gestured to the notepads that were floating in front of them with her right hand's index finger "Lio?" she asked "Are you doing this?" Lio just smiled and said "The can fly I just told them that they could is all" the other members of team Blue picked up their notepads and started to head back inside the Academy. However as they went Tosh and Kath kept a distance of seven feet away from the three other members on their team. As they walked Kath whispered "I wouldn't have believed that if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. Is that really Lio? I mean he seems so much different than he usually is"

Tosh looked at Lio's new demeanor and although the dreadlocked young man would have considered this new, confident attitude that Lio had to be a good thing, it was just too unusual and sudden. Something just wasn't right, Lio is out sick for a little more than couple of days and when they finally see the guy again he's acting like a completely different person. The bald headed trainee couldn't possibly have started to act like this on his own, no somebody must have done something to him there was no other explanation.

Probably having sensed what it was that Tosh had been thinking about, Kath looked over at Tosh concerned and asked "Do you really think it's possible that someone managed to do something to him to make him like this?" Kath asked. Tosh narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

"Someone had to have done something, you don't just suddenly change like that over the course of a couple of nights, in fact it's like Lio's not really even there anymore and someone else that looks like him has decided to fill his shoes" he said before Alejandro called for them to catch up. Tosh and Kath picked up the pace a bit in an attempt to catch up to their fellow trainees.

* * *

-Shi, APC en-route to the Swift Messenger-

* * *

The fastest route to the Swift Messenger was through one of the smaller canyons that were situated to the east of the refinery. Although this did allow them a speedy escape the only problem was that the canyon that they were going through was the perfect spot for an ambush. There were high steep cliffs on both sides and the rocky terrain offered nearly perfect hiding spots for the Zerg if they weren't already burrowed underneath the loose dirt that covered much of the canyon's floor.

There was a tense feeling circulating throughout the APC. Although Andrew and the others had managed to outrun the Zerg back at the dig site there were still a lot of them out there and Andrew didn't doubt for a moment that the Zerg involved in that little skirmish earlier wasn't even a taste of the whole horde. This made him even more alert than he was earlier and at times during the drive there he felt himself observing every part of the scenery in front of him for any at all signs of an ambush.

Hell Andrew was practically jumping at shadows and almost appeared to be paranoid but given how he and several others had been on the receiving end of a Zerg ambush while he was helping evacuate the Protoss back on their home world of Aiur. Needless to say it had almost ended in the worst possible way for him and those that he was fighting alongside at the time.

Andrew had no wish to repeat that little incident and he sure as hell didn't want to see anyone in the APC get killed because he wasn't alert enough. But they continued on as they had been earlier earlier, approaching their intended destination without being antagonized by their Zerg pursuers in the slightest since their encounter at the dig site.

Meanwhile in the passenger compartment of the APC the four survivors that had been living on Shi for several months were getting a bit antsy themselves. The reason for this was because they hadn't been given a single answer to any one of their many questions that they had been asking themselves since they had been evacuated from Tyrador IX to this remote ball of rock.

Nova felt their thoughts speeding up as anxiety and fear still hammered away inside their minds, they wanted to leave and they wanted some sort of an explanation as to who their rescuers were as well as some closure in regards to the current status of their families.

Nova wondered just how much they knew in regards to what had happened almost a year and a half ago. That conversation wasn't going to be a pleasant one that was for sure. The ride was for the most part pretty quiet aside from the four survivors trying to tell each other that the worst was over and done with. Every once and a while Nova would get tired of the verbal quiet and ask Delta and Andrew how they were doing. They would always respond with something similar to an "I'm alright" and would then pretty much leave it at that.

After they continued to drive for a few more minutes Andrew and the others saw that their goal was at last in sight. The Swift Messenger was parked just a couple hundred meters away from them, hell Nova could almost feel the ship lifting off and leaving this god forsaken planet behind. Before their transport could get any closer to their only means of salvation parts of the ground that was a few meters ahead of them burst upwards almost like geysers and several moderately sized Zerg came up out of their ambush positions in their little burrows.

Andrew recognized that particular breed of Zerg almost instantly, roaches. These bastards were highly resistant to most small arms fire due to their thick exoskeletons. However the armor piercing rounds that were used in C-10 rifles or even the optional explosive rounds were usually enough to punch through the armor with a few well placed shots on some of the 'softer' areas of the roach's exoskeleton.

The only downside was that Nova, Delta and Andrew were pretty much the only ones who had weapons not including Morgan's shotgun which was already starting to run low on ammunition and would probably only be useful against zerglings and maybe hydralisks if he was lucky enough to get close to one without being shredded to pieces by the razor sharp projectiles that they had stored in their bodies.

"Incoming!" Andrew yelled as he attempted to swerve out of the way of the roaches before they could spew their corrosive acid on the APC's armor. The acid would easily eat through the armor seeing as how it was quite infamous for being able to eat through neosteel that the APC's outer shell had been built with. As the APC swerved away from the roaches Delta opened fire with the APC's roof mounted turret.

Most of the gunfire from the weapon went wild as it was difficult to aim thanks to the sudden and hard movement the vehicle was making. One of the closer roaches let out a shriek before spitting its acid at the APC. The back right wheel along with part of the wall started to melt away from the acid. Eventually the acid ate through enough of the machinery which caused the APC to crash into the one of the canyon's walls.

Thankfully everyone had been strapped in so no one was injured in the APC's crash. Andrew quickly unbuckled himself from the seat and grabbed his rifle and flipped the safety off. The armored personnel carrier was now a useless wreck thanks to that acid from those fucking roaches and the crash that ensued.

Not wasting any time Andrew quickly made his way to the passenger area of the APC. Delta was still manning the turret and was firing away at the Zerg while Nova tried to calm down Bess and Morgan both of whom were practically panicking at this new development. Antonia who had already gotten out of her seat looked over at Andrew "Well is the APC still going to get us out of here?" she asked doing her best to remain calm while attempting to get some answers as to how bad the current situation was.

The Ghost operative sighed. He felt that it would be a waste of time trying to sugarcoat the situation they were in, Andrew decided to be blunt in his delivery of their new problem "There's no way in hell this APC is going to make it to the ship, the only option that we have left right now is to hotfoot it back to the ship" he explained.

Andrew knew for a fact that the four survivors that they had found weren't going to like this. The most vocal response that came from the group was from Morgan Calabas "Are you out of your god damned mind those Zerg will end up slaughtering us or worse before we even make it ten feet out that hatch!" he exclaimed fear ever present in his widening eyes while he clutched that same piece of luggage as well as the shotgun in his arms. Morgan started to mumble about how screwed they were.

The female Ghost that had been sitting down with the rest of the survivors wordlessly got up off of her seat and walked over to where Morgan was sitting and slapped him across the face. This caused everyone to stop what they were doing and look right at her.

"And how long do you think you're going to last if you stay in here, we'll give you cover as you make a run for it" she said before she snatched the shotgun right out of his hands much to his chagrin and checked the ammo counter which read that there were only ten shots remaining in the clip.

"Is there anyone here levelheaded enough who knows how to properly use this?" she asked holding up the gun by its barrel with her left hand. At first no one said a word but then Rockham stood up and said "Well I went out on a shooting range more than a couple of times with my uncle" before he gingerly took the weapon from Nova's hands and checked the side of the weapon where a couple of small buttons were located to make sure that the safety was still on before he pulled back on the pump, sending another round into the weapon's chamber before sliding the pump back forward, all that was needed now was for the safety to be flipped off before the weapon was ready for use.

After Rockham checked his weapon, Andrew spoke up, his voice attempting to drown out the gunfire from the turret that Delta was using by being a little louder.

"Alright, here's the plan, Rockham will have rearguard duty which means if you see any of those bug bastards get too close blast them to hell, but when you run out of ammo you will discard the weapon and run like hell to the ship, understood?" Andrew said to which Rockham immediately nodded "Sure thing" not really wanting the weapon to weigh him down while he was running.

"Okay let's move!" Andrew ordered while he sent to Delta _"Get off the turret it's time to move!"_ Delta nodded before firing one last seven round burst at one of the closer zerglings that had arrived near their current position before finally complying with the order and hopped off of the seat that controlled the APC's turret. Once Delta was off and had a C-10 in her arms Andrew gave the ramp a telekinetically amplified kick which sent it down to the dirt floor of the canyon with a thud.

"Go, go, go!" Andrew yelled running down the ramp as he fired a four round burst from is C-10 into a nearby zergling. The dog sized Zerg fell to the ground with four large holes in its head and abdomen. Andrew took point blasting any ranged Zerg that got too close to their position. On the sides several groups of zerglings attempted to flank the survivors position but Nova quickly teeked them away from them away and right into the canyon walls with near hurricane force which resulted in a series of satisfying splatters.

Rockham who was taking up the rear fired off rounds from the shotgun but since the recoil was enough to throw out his shoulder if he wasn't careful had to stop for a moment in order to take a shot. The weapon's ammo was also begining to run dry. He currentlly only had about four shots left.

As he continued to run Rockham spotted a nearby zergling which was quickly starting to close in the distance between it and the shotgun wielding teenager. Rockham stopped running brought the weapon's stock up to his shoulder and squeezed the trigger with all his might.

The resulting blast blew the Zergling's head to pieces, the creature fell forwards into the dirt and slid forwards for a second before the dead body skidded to a halt, its limbs giving off small twitches. Rockham pulled back on the shotgun's pump which ejected a shell casing into the dirt and he soon noticed several more zerglings coming for his position. Rockham then started running towards the ship again.

Soon a cycle started, he would stop running turn around and fire a shot at the Zerg before starting to run again. This lasted until Rockham had finally expended all of his remaining ammo. After he fired the last shot he threw the weapon onto the ground and took off in a sprint to the ship.

After few more tense seconds of running and shooting up Zerg Andrew saw that the ship was only a few dozen meters away, they were going to make it! However his relief soon turned into horror as three hydralisks came up out of the ground nearby the ship.

Upon seeing the Hydralisks Morgan started to go into hysterics.

Ignoring Morgan's bitching about how they were now completely screwed, Andrew simply aimed his weapon at them but much to his dismay it made a click, it was empty! Not having time to rectify the problem, Andrew slung the weapon before he reached out with his hand and mind and condensed enough of the air by the closest hydralisk to the point that if he were to suddenly release the air it would have the same effect as a grenade.

Then, without warning Andrew clenched his fist and released the compressed air with his mind which caused an explosion about the same size as that of three frag grenades which caused part of the hydralisk's head to explode and shower its two brothers with gore which made them let out a series of angry hisses as they lowered their heads in preparation for an attack.

Andrew didn't give them the chance however and once again compressed the air around them before making it explode around the two remaining hydralisks much to the amazement of the two other ghosts as well as the other survivors.

"Keep moving! Don't look back!" Andrew yelled before he took out a spare magazine from his suit's ammo pouch and slammed it into the weapon before he resumed fire at the approaching horde of zerglings. Nova and Delta soon emulated this and they continued to fire on full auto mowing down dozens of the approaching while the four Old Family survivors got up the ramp and into the ship.

After mowing down several Zerg Andrew yelled something about having only twenty remaining shots in his rifle. Acting almost on instinct Delta looked down at her own ammo counter and saw that she was starting to run low on ammunition as well. It was then that Delta realized that she had seen this happen in her dreams. It should have been impossible but what she saw in her dreams was _actually_ happening right here and now and if that was true then-

Delta was brought out of her thoughts by a zergling's shriek this one much closer than the others and saw one of the monster's tackle Andrew to the ground. The little monster attempted to sink its razor sharp fangs into his neck but it was barely held back by Andrew who was using the body of his C-10 to keep the thing from getting any closer. Delta found herself unable to move or act, the twelve year old found herself frozen with both fear and disbelief.

Soon after the little wrestling match began Andrew was beginning to lose the battle. The zergling's sheer weight and inhuman determination and strength kept Andrew on the defensive and thus making him unable to summon his psionic abilities to get the little monster off of him.

Nova looked over at Andrew with a look of fear. She felt a sense of dread just looking at the situation that Andrew found himself in, after everything that they had gone through Nova couldn't lose him like she lost her parents and brother, she just _couldn't_.

Acting purely out of instinct Nova lashed out with her telekinetic abilities and through the zergling off of him _'No!"_ Nova's mind screamed as the zergling flew off of Andrew with a telekinetic force that she didn't even know that she was capable of_ 'I won't let you hurt him! I _won't_!'_ she thought with righteous fury before the zergling's head exploded in a shower of gore.

Andrew quickly got up off of the ground and sent _"Thanks Nova"_ before he opened fire with his rifle again "Everyone onto the ship now!" he yelled as he backed up to the ramp of the ship and was still firing his C-10 canister rifle even as Delta and Nova, the former of whom had gotten over her little panic attack ran up into the ship.

After firing a few more rounds the rifle that the Ghost had been using made an irritating click. This time Andrew didn't even bother to reload, instead he grabbed his sidearm and started taking potshots at any Zerg that looked like it was getting too close to his position before finally finished boarding the ramp.

Andrew was the last one inside the ship and seeing as how he was positive that everyone was onboard he flipped the switch nearby that immediately raised the ship's ramp and not even waiting he sprinted as fast as he possibly could to the cockpit while everyone followed behind him. Once inside he saw that Colin was already in his seat with a somewhat calm expression while he just sat down and waited for everyone else to get seated. Andrew meanwhile hopped into the chair and not even waiting for everyone else to get into their seats quickly fired the engines.

The ship then started to lift up off the ground, the Zerg down below hissing and shrieking in anger that their prey had managed to escape them. The hydralisks uselessly fired off their razor sharp spines at the ship despite instinctively knowing that it was out of range.

* * *

The ship started to shake again as it passed through the atmosphere. Colin looked a little bit better than he had the last few times that they had entered and left a planet's atmosphere to which Andrew was eternally grateful for. He sure as hell didn't want to have to wipe the kid's vomit up off of the floor if he didn't make it to the bathroom in time.

Eventually the view of the sky that could be seen from the cockpit slowly changed from a clear sky into that of a dark void that was dotted with millions of stars. Once they were clear of the planet's gravitational field Andrew punched in a course for the rendezvous point into the navigational computers and pushed a series of buttons which activated the ship's warp drive.

Upon entering warp space Andrew let out a sigh of relief as he unclasped his hazardous environment suit's helmet and took it off before placing it down on the floor. Soon after Nova and Delta did the same. Upon seeing Nova's face the last remaining members of the Confederate Old Families faces were frozen in shock. The first one to speak up was Antonia whose normally calm and collected voice came out with a slight stutter "N-Nova, but y-you're dead, the news they said that you had died along with your parents and older brother"

The mention of Nova's parents and brother brought back some very uncomfortable memories for the young telepath but Nova mentally shook those thoughts away and then calmly shook her head in response to Antonia's statement. This would be one of the many things that would be difficult for them to take in "No I'm not, and I'm a Ghost now" she explained.

"But what happened to you after your parents died?" Morgan asked. Nova looked even more uncomfortable at that question. The blond telepath was struggling to find a way to explain what had happened to her during the six month long stay in hellhole known as the Gutter of Tarsonis

Before any of the other Old Family survivors could continue to press her for information Andrew who was sensing her distress, stood up off of the pilot chair he was in and put a comforting hand on Nova's shoulder before speaking up.

"Look, what happened after Nova's parent's died is a very personal matter to her, and if Nova doesn't wish to discuss it right now than she doesn't have to, besides I think that you all need to know what has become of your families, and Tarsonis" he said before Nova sent _"Thank you"_. In response Andrew nodded knowing that any questions about Nova's time in the Gutter would make her very uncomfortable to say the least.

At the mention of their parents the four survivors looked over at Andrew intently who let out a sigh and gave them all a sympathetic look "Now I know that this is probably going to be a bit of a shock to all of you but, a little over a year ago Tarsonis was completely overrun by the Zerg, there were only a handful of survivors to make it out of that massacre, and I'm truly sorry to say that your families weren't among them"

The reaction from the Old Families was almost immediate, Bess embraced her brother as tears started to stream down her face and she began to sob almost hysterically. Morgan collapsed back into his seat eyes wide while his mind tried its best to process the information that had been given to him.

His father, he was dead along with his mom and all his other relatives, everyone that he had ever known in his life was gone. Antonia started to cry as well but she did her best to keep from sobbing, instead the last member of the Tygore family brought her hand to her mouth in shock.

Andrew, Nova, Colin and Delta allowed them to let out their grief for a while. Eventually though Andrew continued to tell the story once they seemed like they had finally managed to regain themselves "The Terran Confederacy no longer exists, Arcturus Mengsk, you know that terrorist that I'm sure you had all heard of. He was the leader of the Sons of Korhal group that was waging a revolution against the Confederacy had seized power shortly after the fall of Tarsonis and established the Terran Dominion, in other words you are all wanted individuals now and will most likely be executed if you're ever discovered" he explained.

The surviving members of the Old Families first one to react to this newest revelation was Rockham "But, we-we haven't even done anything wrong, why would Mengsk want to kill us?" he asked. Andrew practivally snorted before responding.

"Pal you and your friends are, in his mind one of two things. You're either political threats, or you're just the last bit of the Old Families that had ordered his family butchered and so you need to be stamped out just as brutally, which means if you do end up getting captured Mengsk will more than likely not even give you any kind of a fair trial, he'll probably just have you quietly executed and dumped into an unmarked grave out on some fringe colony" he explained to a horrified audience.

Nova land Delta looked over at Andrew with a stern looks on their faces _"What the hell do you think you're doing?!"_ Nova demanded _"I don't think that this is going to make them feel any better"_ sent Delta before Andrew looked at the two of them _"Sugarcoating their situation isn't going to help matters they need to know what they're in for out there"_ he explained. The blond telepath sighed. They both knew that he was probably right about this.

Andrew then turned back to look at those that they had just rescued "But I don't intend on letting that happen, I'm part of a resistance group that's attempting to overthrow the Dominion, I give you my word that we'll make sure that you all get somewhere safe" he assured before he walked over to the door.

"Please allow me to show you around the ship, we're going to be in warp space for another two days and you all should familiarize yourself with it until we reach the rendezvous point" he explained before leading them out of the cockpit and towards the main personnel quarters.

* * *

To be continued.

A/N: next chapter Andrew and the others will come face to face with Jim Raynor.

and i know that this wasn't a battle, this was because that they didn't have the manpower or the resources to launch that kind of a campaign against the Zerg.


	9. Rendezvous With the Raiders

StarCraft Ghost Warrior

Chapter 9

Rendezvous with the Raiders

* * *

A/N: Sorry if this took too long but between my part time job, coming down with a nasty cold and online courses I haven't exactly had much time to write. But hopefully the sheer length will make up for this.

Also if any of you haven't read Ragnarok666's StarCraft fanfic Aftermath and Revelations already, than I'll just say this, it is without any doubt probably one of the best StarCraft fanics out there and I highly recommend that anyone who's a fan of the series to give it a look.

Disclaimer: I do not own Starcraft, it is the property of Blizzard entertainment. However I do own Amelia, Andrew and Alejandro

There is a Starship Troopers reference somewhere in here, try and spot it and you get a cookie.

* * *

-Swift Messenger, cargo bay Currently in Warp Space-

* * *

Andrew was sitting down at a makeshift desk that had been made from a couple of containers in the freighter's cargo bay and was cleaning the internal components of his C-10 canister rifle while he went over recent events in his mind. The last remaining members of the Old Families finished the tour that they had been given almost a four hours ago. After the tour had been completed they were each shown to their assigned quarters onboard the ship. Much to Andrew's surprise they didn't really complain too much about their new accommodations even though they were more used to luxurious surroundings.

But he supposed that was probably to be expected since they had been living in an abandoned mining complex before the Zerg had showed up on that planet. In fact, Andrew found that bit about the Zerg a tad odd, why the hell would the Zerg show up at an abandoned mining complex that had only a handful of resources that would be usable for them.

Ever since Kerrigan AKA the Queen of Blades had taken complete control over the Zerg swarms, the Zerg only invaded other planets if there was a strategic reason for it. Attacking an abandoned mining colony that was practically dry of resources didn't really make much sense. They certainly weren't using it for a staging area for attacks on other Terran systems seeing as how it was a very remote system and was nowhere near any strategically located system.

The only thing at the Baker's Dozen that may be of some value would be those survivors from the Old Families. Andrew seriously doubted that Kerrigan would bother to waste her time trying to hunt down the last members of the Confederate Old Families. Hell if anything that sounded like something that Mengsk would be doing.

Andrew stopped cleaning his rifle after that stray thought had finished passing through his mind. That made a lot of sense actually. After all he, Raynor and the rest of the guys knew for a fact that Dominion weapons research always kept a a fair number of live Zerg specimens around for weapons testing ever since Andrew and several other Raiders had attacked one of their military research centers on an orbital platform few months ago.

It would be relatively easy for one of the less dangerous specimens such as a couple of Zerg drones to be 'transferred to another facility' and then shipped off to Shi as a little gift for the last remnants of the Old Confederacy's government. Once on Shi the drones could easily start up a small hive cluster and given the distance between the large group of hatcheries that Andrew and the others had found and the mining base that the Old Family children were using as a residence, the Zerg would have inevitably found out about the small band of Terrans living near their domain and would of course move to eliminate a possible threat to their hives.

For a second Andrew excogitated to himself about bringing his suspicions to the rest of the group, or at least to Nova. However he quickly pushed that idea of his aside, he had no real evidence to support any of his speculations on the matter. Although if he was right than Mengsk had probably been monitoring the situation on Shi for a while now. That would be some cause for some concern but even if he knew about their little rescue, it would take a while for him to respond given that there were no Dominion forces in that area of space.

And if the ruthless dictator had been monitoring like he probably would if he was indeed behind the Zerg infestation on that planet then Andrew had pretty much just single handedly thwarted an attempt at wiping out the last remaining members of the Confederate Old Families. The mere thought of the enraged look on Mengsk's face when he found out his little scheme had failed (assuming that it was indeed him who had had put the Zerg on that planet in the first place) almost caused Andrew to start laughing.

However he managed to suppress that urge and managed to collect himself a bit. Andrew then started to reassemble that same rifle he had been working on just a few minutes earlier. One he was finished reassembling the weapon he began to head towards the ship's lounge. The corridor that lead out of the cargo bay had a serious ighting problem and he could hear the buzzing of the old light bulbs as they struggled to stay on.

The lighting in some parts of the ship didn't really illuminate the area very well. This caused most of this particular corridor to be almost like something out of a horror movie. Not wanting to wander around in a slightly darkened environment Andrew pulled out the flashlight from one of the equipment pouches that were on the Ghost armor he that was currently wearing and turned it on, illuminating the room slightly and making the shadows that were produced by parts of the ship dance around whenever he pointed the flashlight at something.

Ever since he had found the Ghost uniform he almost always wore it. The one that he used to wear back aboard the Hyperion was one of the older models that the Confederate Ghosts would use and therefore didn't contain one of the newer Moebius reactors and so it could only remain cloaked for a maximum of about fifteen to twenty minutes before they needed to recharge for a while. These newer ones though could remain cloaked for well over two or three hours at a time and the time in between each use was even shorter.

After using Ghost armor for the so long it had started to feel like something of a second skin to him. In fact Andrew had gotten so accustomed to using it that he almost felt like he was missing something every time he took it off his body. Therefore it took a lot of getting used to the training garbs that he and the other trainees had been wearing while he was infiltrating the Ghost Academy .

Pushing those thoughts aside for the moment Andrew continued down the dimly lit corridors until he finally reached the ship's lounge. The freighter's lounge was just what it sounded like, a place for the crew to relax whenever they were off duty but unable to leave the ship.

In the room's center there was a small table with a small built in holo projector located in the center which allowed them to view holos that were being broadcasted from anywhere out into the universe, three small couches also surrounded the table and in one of the corners there was a small cooking area where the crew could prepare their own meals as well as a refrigeration practically adjacent to it.

There was also a wall mounted vid screen which, unlike the holo projector had really lousy reception due it being a much older and poorly maintained variant. On the wall there used to be a large number of very 'provocative' photos of very attractive women. Thankfully Andrew managed to hide the photos away in a small cabinet which he believed that nobody would try and look through before Colin managed to enter the room. The poor kid had been psychologically scarred in far too many ways as it was and Colin didn't need to see _those_ before he learned about the birds and the bees when he was older.

Pushing those thoughts out of his head Andrew sat down on one of the soft leather couches before he flipped on the power for the holo projector. Once the power turned on the projector began to emit a low humming noise before he started to adjust the unit's frequency, tuning the machine to search for one particular frequency that was so off limits to Dominion citizens that it was practically treason to listen to whatever was being projected.

Andrew continued to fiddle with the frequency mechanism for a while before he sensed a very familiar thought pattern near the door. It was Nova's. less than a moment later the door open and of course that same blond haired telepath/telekinetic walked into the lounge of the ship. "Andrew?" she asked as she cocked a curious eyebrow "What are you still doing up?"

Andrew gave a small smile apparently they were both thinking along the same lines "I could ask the same question of you" he stated and in response Nova let out a sigh "I couldn't sleep at all, so I came here to clear my head a little I guess" she shrugged as she walked over and took a seat on the couch that was directly across from him.

"What are you doing?" she asked while Andrew continued to fiddle with the frequency on the holo projector "Couldn't really sleep either right now I'm just looking for the right frequency on this thing" he explained still fooling with the mechanism.

As he continued with his work on the holo projector he eventually spoke up "So how was your talk with your friends from the Old Families?" Andrew asked curiously wondering how their new passengers had been coping. Nova didn't seem to know how to respond to that at first but after a few seconds she answered him.

"It was alright I guess, so far they've been having a pretty difficult time accepting that all of their relatives were killed by the Zerg during the fall of Tarsonis as well as the new situation that they've found themselves in. Their thoughts are a mix between relief that their still among the living, grief at the loss of their families and fear of what's going to happen to them" she said sadly.

Andrew sighed and stopped fooling around with the frequency unit and looked up at Nova and spoke up "The pain that's in their hearts will never go away but eventually they'll find some way to cope with the loss they're enduring, almost everyone does. And as for their future, well when we get to the Hyperion, Raynor and I will try and convince the Umojans to give them political asylum" he explained.

Nova looked a little nervous at that, the Umojans had held a hell of a lot of hatred for the old Confederacy when it was still around and in power. It was certainly in the realm of probability that their government could very well end up executing Antonia, Rockham, Bess and Morgan. Andrew probably having sensed exactly what it was that Nova had been thinking began to attempt to reassure her.

"Nova, I seriously doubt that they'd be willing to execute a bunch of teenagers even if they used to be members of the Old Families in fact they're much more valuable to them alive than dead, not only because they're basically enemies of Mengsk, whom the Umojans despise almost as much as they did the Confederacy if not more so. If they were to find out that there are some members of the Old Families still amongst the living then it's a symbolic defeat for Mengsk that despite his best efforts his ambition of annihilating the soul of the Confederacy, it still remains firmly beyond his reach" Andrew explained.

Nova thought about that for a second. He did make a valid argument. The female telepath/telekinetic's expression changed from being very nervous to that of a genuine smile "How do you do it?" she asked which made Andrew adopt a somewhat confused expression and wondered as to what Nova had even meant by that statement.

"How do I do what?" he asked looking for some kind of clarification on what it was that Nova was talking about. "How do you manage to always say just the right things to make me feel better whenever I'm down?" she asked giving a bit more of an explanation as to what it was she had meant by her earlier statement.

Andrew just shrugged in response "I guess I just have a talent for it" he supposed not really knowing what else to say, before he finally found the correct frequency on the holo projector. _'Finally this piece of junk managed to pick up the right frequency'_ he thought as the figure of Michael Liberty was being projected.

Andrew always liked to listen to Mikey's reports a hell of a lot more than he did the reporters that worked for UNN. the reason for this was simple. Unlike the Universal News Network which basically spouted a shit load of pro-Dominion propaganda (Unless of course it was Kate Lockwell who tried to be more of a balanced reporter who'd always tried to report the truth), Michael Liberty on the other hand only reported exactly what it was that he saw and nothing else.

Not once in Liberty's career had he ever exaggerated any detail, he never sugarcoated it and best of all, Michael never altered a damn thing in his reports. Everything that was being shown by him was as close to the truth as one could possibly get.

Upon seeing the rogue reporter's holographic visage being projected Nova became completely stunned. Not many people in Dominion space had the gall to pull something like that. After all, just tuning into Michael Liberty's pirated holos would earn almost anyone nearly a twenty year sentence in New Folsom or even _death_ if they had been found guilty of doing something like that.

Eventually Nova regained her voice and said "You do realize that listening to his broadcasts is completely illegal in Dominion space right?" she asked. With that Andrew let out a chuckle "Nova I'm part of Raynor's Raiders, one of the most wanted anti-Dominion forces in the _entire_ Korprulu Sector and so are you since you ran from the Ghost Academy, so we're wanted individuals either way" he explained.

The blonde haired telepath/telekinetic sighed. Andrew did make a valid point and to be perfectly honest, Nova never really understood why it was illegal in the Dominion to listen to an individual voice his opinion on something. At the time though she hadn't really thought much about that kind of thing while she was a the Ghost Academy. Nova had been focused on becoming a Ghost which would allow her to finally get rid of the memories of that horrific day and the six months that followed at least until Andrew managed to change her opinion on forgetting her past.

Seeing as how she and Delta were already pretty much wanted criminals by the Dominion government she decided that she didn't really have much else to lose or gain at this point by listening to a reporter that operated outside of the Dominion's control.

Liberty started to talk to his audience about a recent Dominion military raid on a colony world known as Wanderer's Progress (yes Wanderer's Progress is completely made up) while they attempted to locate a small yet highly resourceful band of rebels that called themselves the Korprulu Liberation Front. According to the journalist as well as several eyewitnesses which were members of the colony who had managed to capture what had happened on camera.

The vid started by showing four dropships flying over the town. Each one bore an insignia that Nova knew all too well, the Annihilators. The Annihilators were a former Confederate special forces division under the command of one major Esmerelda Ndoci. After the collapse of the Terran Confederacy the Annihilators immediately changed sides to that of the Dominion and managed to retain their status as a special forces unit. Although the Annihilators used to be a ground combat only unit they appeared to have branched out a bit since the last time that Nova had seen them.

The dropships set down just outside of the small town and the ramps lowered allowing marines, firebats and marauders to leave the ships and make their way into town. The next shots showed the commanding officer of the Annihilators, major Ndoci herself clad in polished and pristine CMC powered combat armor talking with one of the locals presumably the mayor of that town on the colony in the center of town.

Although the cameraman was too far away to get any good audio of the two discussing judging by the major's body language and the irritated scowl on her olive skinned face she seemed on the verge of a major meltdown. Nova knew that this woman loved intimidating people but for some reason the mayor wasn't having any of that and instead appeared very defiant in the face of .

A scant few moments later the major finally seemed to have completely lost all semblance of patience with the man and pulled out a P500 gauss pistol from her armor's hip holster and without even batting an eye aimed it directly at the mayor's face, her pistol only a few inches away from his forehead, and with no hesitation she pulled the trigger. The resulting discharge from the weapon completely obliterated the poor man's head.

The now headless body stayed upright for a few seconds, swaying back and forth for a time before the remains finally fell backwards onto the dirt. From there Ndoci gave the signal for the marines, firebats and marauders to open fire. What followed was nothing short of an absolute slaughter. The colonists attempted to flee as quickly as they could but they were soon mowed down from either the marines C14 gauss impaler rifle rounds or from the marauder's punisher grenades or even more disturbingly from the firebat's perdition flamethrower gauntlets.

Nova put her hand to her mouth in shock as she watched the images that were being broadcasted. It was true, she had seen death and murder before in her life but never a mass slaughter like the one she was now witnessing. Andrew caught Nova's reaction and even he had been disturbed by the images that he had just witnessed. Normally when Michael Liberty was broadcasting a report on something like this he normally interviewed the survivors of the incident since there was rarely any footage of what happened left behind.

Not wasting anymore time Andrew flipped off the holo projector power and the images soon faded into nothing. The Ghost operative then looked over at Nova and once again and began to make out an apology all the while he began cursing his clumsiness and ineptitude during some of the times that he interacted with her. However before he could even utter out a word Nova stopped him "Don't apologize, please Andrew, it's not like you knew that Liberty would show something like that" she said before continuing "I've actually met the commander of that Dominion military unit that was causing that massacre" she explained.

Andrew looked at her with a serious expression. He had encountered the Annihilators as well and not just because he had accidentally teeped Nova's dreams that one time. It was clear that the woman that lead that division wasn't just crazy around terrorists, it seemed that she liked to shoot at just about anybody.

"So have I. The rest of the Raiders and I have fought the Annihilators on several occasions before. Usually we manage to come out even and one side is normally forced to withdraw from whatever battlefield that we're fighting in" he explained. The Ghost operative knew all too well that Ndoci and her band of fellow psychotics were almost ridiculously trigger happy when it came to whatever task that they had been assigned to complete. Therefore it wasn't too much of a stretch to see that Ndoci and her men were firing on civilians.

Nova had listened to every word that was said and wondered to herself. Were the Annihilators going to pay for these crimes or were they just going to get away with it. No there was no way that they could get away with something like that. There was _no_ way, not with that kind of evidence against them. But there was a part of her, nagging in the back of her head that was telling her that somehow they would find a way around it.

She needed to know for sure, "Andrew" she said as calmly as possible to which the boy looked right at her "Yeah?" he asked. Nova took a breath and said "Put that holo back on, I need to see what happened after that massacre" despite her horror at watching something like that unfold she needed to know what the response was from Dominion officials.

"Are you sure?" Andrew asked looking a little concerned "I'll be fine, I'm not some fragile porcelain doll" she said with a small amount of hostility in her voice. Andrew looked a little insulted by what she was implying "I never said or even thought you ever were one, I just don't want to do something that we'll both end up regretting" he responded before flipping the switch back on the machine, allowing the holo projector to power back up.

The vid that was showing the massacre was no longer there and instead Michael Liberty's figure replaced it. He was standing there looking a bit unnerved by what was on that vid. "Dominion military officials held a news conference earlier today, declaring that elements of the Korprulu Liberation Front who were working in conjunction with Raynor's Raiders were the ones who committed this atrocity and by the time that the Annihilators arrived on the scene was nothing left but death and a handful of vid footage incriminating the Raiders and the KLF as the culprits.

Despite claims that the Dominion has made I believe that the footage on these holo vids are self evident. Major Ndoci leader of the Annihilators spearheaded this massacre after she was unable to get whatever information she wanted out of the mayor of the town, now would all my viewers please join me in a moment of silence for the victims of this slaughter" Michael Liberty then tilted his head downwards and closed his eyes. Out of respect Nova and Andrew did the same exact thing.

Once the moment of silence was over Andrew turned the machine off again and looked over at Nova who appeared to be very conflicted with what she had just witnessed. At first Nova was in almost complete disbelief but she soon accepted that what she had just witnessed was in fact genuine mainly because it was nearly impossible to fake holographic recordings.

Nova quickly accepted what had just happened and how the Dominion military had covered it all up she felt conflicted, was _this_ what she would have eventually become if she had gone through with the training back at the Ghost Academy? Would she have ended up doing something just like this? If so Nova doubted that she would have had a problem with massacring innocent people since after the brain panning procedure the Dominion would have molded her into whatever it was that they wanted her to become.

The young telepath/telekinetic got up off of the couch she needed some time alone for a while to think about what she had just witnessed. As she did Andrew looked at her worriedly apparently sensing the unease in her thought patterns "Nova are you alright?" he asked. "Y-yeah, I'm fine, look I just need some time to think for a while" she said before she began to make her way back to her quarters.

* * *

Several hours passed since Nova had seen the footage that was had been broadcast on the holo projector. For a while Nova was unable to get any sleep her mind to wrapped up in what she had seen in that holo that Michael Liberty had shown. The fact that the Dominion government hadn't responsibility or even taken any steps to punish Ndoci or any of her men and had instead opted to simply place the blame of that massacre squarely on the shoulders of those that didn't even have anything to do with it.

This in of itself pretty much proved what it was that Andrew was saying about the Dominion, that it was indeed ruthless and corrupt to the core. The only question that still remained however, and that question was, were the Raynor's Raiders the valiant freedom fighters that Andrew claimed them to be? After what she had just witnessed on that holo, there was a very strong likelihood that Raynor's and the rest of his men weren't the monsters that she and the other trainees back at the academy had been led to believe.

Nova then turned her thoughts to the other Old Family children that were onboard the ship. Shortly after getting on board the ship Morgan Calabas had approached Nova and much to her surprise offered a very sincere apology about how he had attempted to get underneath her skirt when they were still on Tarsonis before giving her back an old suitcase that had belonged to her before she had left the shuttle. Apparently he had been holding onto it for the past year and a half. At first Nova didn't really know how to react to Morgan's apology and it was genuine, her telepathic abilities confirmed this.

Eventually though Nova decided to accept Morgan's apology. Once that was over and done with she talked with her old friends for a while in an attempt to catch up a bit more on what they had been doing while they were on that mining colony. Once they were finished with that line of conversation though, Antonia grew curious and started to question Nova in regards to what her relationship with Andrew was.

The blond telepath blushed slightly at the memory of that. After a few seconds of blushing after the question had been asked Nova sputtered a response that the two of them were just friends. However this answer didn't seem to satisfy them which made Bess and Antonia tease her for a little while.

Afterwards Nova spoke with Delta and Colin the former of which was starting to consider her something of an older sibling rather than a friend. Nova supposed that it was only natural, after all little Delta had watched her mother die of disease right in front of her, her father became an alcoholic in response to his wife's and neglected his daughter. With this in mind it was obvious that Delta would want some kind of comfort from another individual.

When Nova befriended Delta the twelve year old must have mentally jumped at the chance to make a friend due to her difficulties with doing something. And to be honest Nova was happy that she'd managed to run into Delta that day back at the Ghost Academy. The kid was almost like the little sister that she never had and seeing as how the two acted around one another one wouldn't really discern if they were related or not unless they asked the two of them.

Nova continued to lay on the cot for a while before the ship briefly shook signaling that they were now exiting warp space and that they were at the rendezvous point. Nova got up off of the cot and started to head for the cockpit of the ship which was where everyone would be meeting.

* * *

By the time that Nova reached the cockpit she saw that everyone else was already there and they were strapped into their seats while Andrew piloted the ship. On the freighter's sensors Nova saw that there was a Minotaur class battle cruiser close to their current position and for a moment Nova considered the possibility that the Dominion military had managed to catch up to them briefly entered her mind but judging by how calm Andrew was acting, Nova deduced that this probably wasn't the case.

This was confirmed not two seconds later when Andrew activated the communications equipment and spoke into the com unit's microphone "This is specialist Andrew Cole to Hyperion do you read? I have Colin Phash with me and I'm waiting for clearance to dock in one of the hangers" he stated. It wasn't very long before Andrew received a reply from the battle cruiser and even though this was an audio only transmission anyone could tell that the person that was contacting them was male.

"We read you Cole, we've all been holding our breath over here since you went undercover back at the Ghost Academy" the individual on the other line stated.

Upon hearing the response at the response given to him and was tempted to make a remark of his own but decided that it would be best not to do so right now and felt that they should know about the additional passengers onboard the freighter "Just so you know we've got a few additional passengers on board too, and…well everyone will probably have to hear about this for themselves to believe it" said Andrew.

"Understood, we've had Swann and Kachinsky clear out hanger three for your arrival a few days ago, and Raynor's already down there waiting for you" he said. Nova and Delta's facial features became surprised at this news, it looked like that they were going to be having a face to face talk with this so called terrorist sooner than they thought they would.

"Okay Matt, I'll see everyone soon enough" said Andrew as the Swift Messenger began to make its way towards hanger bay two.

* * *

-Hyperion, Hanger Bay Two-

* * *

After hearing that Andrew had managed to make it to the rendezvous point and with Colin in tow a large number of the off duty members of Raynor's Raiders as well as Raynor himself immediately headed for hanger bay two to greet their comrade in arms' triumphant return.

If Raynor had to be honest with himself he'd have to say that he had more than just a few doubts that Andrew would be able to pull that crazy plan of his off. And yet there he was, at the rendezvous point at the same date just as he said he'd be.

Andrew had made a habit out of pulling off crazy stunts that if anyone else tried they'd probably end up dead. There was this one time back on Aiur almost a week before the Zerg Overmind had been killed by Tassadar, there was an ultralisk pounding away at the defensive position of several Protoss warriors in a small pass.

Andrew managed to jump from the cliff of the pass and onto the ultralisk's back. Barely managing to stay on the creature's back Andrew fired enough rounds with his C10 rifle into the creature's thick hide at close range to finally pierce through the carapace and into the softer tissue located underneath it. From there he was able to toss a detpack into the creature's wound right before he lost his grip on the creature and fell into several nearby bushes. Less than a second later the Ultralisk's body exploded from the inside thanks to Andrew's explosives.

Raynor chuckled at the memory of that when how Andrew had to go to a nearby lake to wash off all of the ultralisk guts that had literally showered the area after the explosives had gone off. Raynor reached for the flask he kept on him even as the stolen Dominion freighter neared the hanger and took a quick swig from the flask's contents.

Shortly after the Brood War ended Jim Raynor started to drink a bit more heavily than he had previously. The alcohol was the only thing that helped him keep the guilt away, the guilt of his failure to save Kerrigan from the Zerg at New Gettysburg, his failure to stop the infested form of the woman he loved from killing several of his friends back on Korhal including the Protoss warrior praetor Fenix.

Fenix had managed to survive what should have been fatal wounds back on Aiur. But before he died his broken and battered body was recovered and placed into a dragoon. A dragoon was essentially a walking coffin. Inside was a life support system that hooked up to the Protoss' central nervous system, this managed to keep them alive and made them still able to fight against the enemies of the Protoss. However if they were ever removed from the life support system, they would more than likely die from whatever wounds had been inflicted upon them.

During Kerrigan's betrayal after she had helped Arcturus Mengsk retake Korhal from the UED Fenix and several other Protoss warriors fought heroically but were ultimately overrun by the sheer ferocity and seemingly endless numbers of Zerg. Raynor and the rest of his men had barely gotten out of that massacre.

Before they left Korhal however Kerrigan taunted them with Fenix's death which made Raynor swear to the Queen of Blades that he'd be the one that would kill her even though she taunted him saying, "You don't have what it takes to be a killer"

Jim Raynor pushed those bitter memories aside for now as he watched as the freighter finally landed in the mostly clear hanger bay of the Hyperion. There were actually four hanger bays aboard the Hyperion (I'm actually unsure as to how many there are on the Hyperion but I'm just going to say that there are four of them, feel free to correct me I'm wrong) and each one was capable of holding up to nine Hercules class dropships. So there was more than enough room for freighter to land. As the ship landed though Raynor wondered what it was Horner had meant when he told him that Andrew had said that there would be "A few extra passengers onboard"

The rebel commander soon got his answer when just a few minutes after the freighter had finished landing the ramp leading up into it's cargo hold lowered. Andrew, Colin and several other teenagers and a girl that looked to be on the verge of adolescence walked out of the ship. On Andrew's face was a triumphant look, like a war hero that was given a parade in his honor. And to be honest if the Raiders could pull something like that off they probably would. However they'd probably have to settle for having a toast instead.

The other Raiders walked p to Andrew and started congratulating him, some were completely dumbstruck that he had managed to complete the mission on his own. A lot of the other Raiders believed that they would have to do the rescue mission themselves only this time they'd have to get Andrew out of there as well.

And now those same Raiders were now offering their congratulations about how happy they were that despite some of the doubts that they all had, Andrew had managed to come through for them yet again. Swann and Kachinsky however always knew that he'd be able to pull that off. After all he had pulled off crazy stunts time and time again and this one was no different, it was just over a slightly longer period of time than the others were.

Once some of the other Raiders had finished congratulating their comrade on a job well done, Andrew walked over to where Raynor was standing.

"Hey Raynor it's been a while" he said nonchalantly as he walked up to the leader of the Raiders with a girl that looked to be about his age with blond hair and green eyes following close behind him. She was wearing Ghost armor as well and was looking at him with an air of caution about her. It was obvious that this young woman had head about the Dominion propaganda that surrounded him and his group.

"It's been a little over a month, we were starting to get worried about you, so you mind introducing me to your girlfriend over there?" he asked gesturing to the girl right behind Andrew. The result was priceless, the two of them did a perfect impression of overripe tomatoes _'Called it'_ he thought knowing that Andrew and quite possibly his new friend would probably 'overhear' what he had just thought.

"Um, Raynor we're just friends and besides I think that you're probably more curious about how these additional passengers found themselves here" said Andrew trying to change the subject to what he believed to be of more pressing concerns. Raynor sighed, it looked like he wouldn't be able to tease Andrew about his new friend anytime soon so instead opted to pursue the more pressing matter at hand "Alright then, so tell me then who are these guys?" Raynor asked gesturing towards the others that were all nearby waiting for something to happen.

Andrew looked back over at the other passengers that were on the Swift Messenger, mainly the ones that were members of the Confederate Old families, all of which were all giving off relieved thoughts that they were currently safe and sighed, knowing that this would probably take a while to explain to his commanding officer and friend "I suggest that we all take a seat somewhere it's kind of a long story"

* * *

-Ghost Academy, Urban Combat Training Room B-12, "The Scrapyard"-

* * *

Urban Combat Training Room B-12 aka the "Scrapyard" was exactly what it sounded like. It was a training room roughly the same size as an old Earth football field and it was littered with countless pieces of scrap metal, ruined buildings and inoperable vehicles. Some of the destroyed pieces of scrap dated back all the way to before the start Guild Wars. The buildings themselves were just as old, each one was practically on the verge of collapsing if so much as a small explosion was to go off.

On each of the far sides of the training room each team was dropped off at that particular spot and each team had been given C10 canister rifles that had been modified to fire training bullets. The rounds would hurt if one were to get hit by them, there was no doubt about that and in the worst possible scenario, render the one on the receiving end of the training bullets completely unconscious for a short period of time.

Tosh and the rest of Blue team were making there way slowly and cautiously through the training area, none of them wanted to get ambushed by Red team. The biggest concern that Tosh had however was with Lio, sure he claimed to be doing better than he ever had in his life and with the way he had been acting Tosh almost believed it himself. However there was something seriously off with the guy and it had started just after the "food poisoning" problems had started.

Then there was the 'situation' he was in with Kath. Just yesterday after all of their classes had finished the two of them headed out to one of the more secluded areas in the Ghost Academy's courtyard and talked for a while. It started out innocently enough, just two friends having an idle conversation with one another. Eventually though the topic hit that of family. Tosh told Kath about his life in the rougher parts of Haji and how after his psionic powers manifested themselves he and his grandmother who was also his only remaining family, were banished by the town's elders to a small shack at the outskirts of town.

Eventually members of the Confederate found him and seeing that he had psionic abilities, took him away to the Ghost Academy. After the Confederacy fell and the Dominion took over, living conditions in the Ghost Academy began to improve. This, coupled with propaganda from the newly established government made him very patriotic towards the Dominion. Eventually he gave a passionate speech in support of the Terran Dominion. Kath found his patriotism inspiring and remarked that maybe his true calling was making recruiting commercials for the military if he continued to make speeches like those.

Kath's upbringing was almost the polar opposite of Tosh's, Kath was born into a very wealthy family that cared deeply for her. Once she started to display psionic abilities, her family managed to hide this from both her as well as those that may want to recruit her for the Ghost Academy as best they could. However eventually the military found out and she was recruited and last she had heard, her family was still fighting tooth and nail to legally get her back.

Eventually at their heightened emotional states they both reached out and embraced one another in an act of what was presumably an attempt at trying to comfort the other. However for Tosh there was something there, a warm feeling that he felt whenever he was close to the girl. This feeling had almost always been there. Ever since Tosh had gotten to know Kath it was there. The trainee didn't know if what he felt towards Kath was a crush, love, lust or something else entirely but he knew that the Academy wouldn't tolerate it if he got too close to Kath so he kept the embrace brief.

During breakfast the next day, Kath told the group of how she had run into Aal and Dylanna on her way back to her quarters and how they had threatened her. At that moment Tosh felt an almost irresistible urge to hut the two of them down and tear their heads clean off their shoulders. Thankfully though, he didn't and was surprised when Lio, very calmly and with that same confident attitude he'd displayed before informed the group that Aal's only real weapon was manipulation and that the best way to fight him was to ignore the words that came out of his mouth.

Lio also assured them that this time he wouldn't screw up like he had in the past. Everyone, especially Kath and Tosh were skeptical about Lio's claims since he had made them several times before in the past and rarely came through with them.

Now was the time for Lio to make good on his promises and so far the bald trainee seemed to be calm and focused even as Blue team made their way through the wreckage. As they continued their little trek Tosh kept his eyes on the surroundings and kept his senses attuned to the slightest disturbance that could have been caused by the opposing team.

Suddenly Tosh heard something, it was small but it definitely sounded like something impacting a piece of metal. Immediately he signaled everyone to halt _"What is it, Tosh?"_ Alejandro sent as he crouched down behind the shattered remains of an old truck and scanned the area with his rifle. He didn't see anything which was only a small amount of comfort, neither team had been issued Ghost equipment as of yet so neither side had to really worry about an invisible opponent but that didn't mean that the opposing team wasn't being as stealthy as they possibly could.

"_Thought I heard something, everybody stay sharp!"_ Tosh ordered as he brought his weapon up and tried to spot a more defensible location that was nearby as everyone on Blue team gave an affirmative response. So far they were behind a line of wreckage and were more than likely already being watched by Red team. And if Red team already had some high ground on their side then they would probably end up getting pinned down pretty easily.

Eventually Tosh spotted a small two story building that was easily defensible but before he could mention this potential shelter to any of his comrades several shots rang out from one of the nearby buildings just across from their location. Thankfully none of the rounds hit any of Tosh's teammates. Everyone dove behind cover and kept their heads down while Red team continued to riddle the cover that they were using with training bullets.

As the rounds continued to pelt their location Tosh realized that the majority of the bullets were being aimed at him rather than the other members of his team. This indicated that he was most likely their target. After all once you cut off the head, the body will cease to function.

Judging from the rounds being fired there were only two or three of the five members of Red team stationed in that building they were using as a firing position. They needed to get up there and neutralize the threat before the rest of Red team could try and flank their position.

Besides that building would make an excellent firing position if they were able to take it from the opposing team. Tosh turned back to the rest of his team _"Kath, you and Amelia head in through the south entrance of that building, stay in cover if you can, Alejandro and Lio will…"_ Tosh trailed off seeing that Lio had wandered off towards where a large group of inoperative SCVs were stationed at. _"Lio where the fuck are you going?!"_ Tosh demanded angrily. Lio had promised them that he would _not_ screw up this time but it seemed as though that within only a few minutes he had broken the promise he had made them.

"_They don't want to be broken"_ he sent back much to Tosh's confusion. The leader of Blue team was about to inquire as to what in the hell it was that Lio meant by this when Lio sent something else that didn't make a lick of sense to him _"They want to work, I can feel it"_

Tosh scowled it looked like that they would have to do this without Lio's help after all. Tosh turned back to the rest of his team and sent _"Okay forget him, Amelia, Alejandro you two head in through the south entrance of the building, Kath you try and line up a decent shot at the shooters in the building if you can, I'm going to try and draw their fire. And remember stay sharp, the other two member of Red team could be lying in ambush somewhere"_

The rest of Tosh's team hurried to where they were ordered to go and as they did Tosh popped out of cover and opened fire with his C10 rifle in the general direction that the shots had been coming from. Tosh knew that he probably wasn't going to hit anyone or anything with the way he was firing but it would probably hold their attention for a while.

* * *

Andie Dessai, Obi Minaya and Winlaleah Martine's orders were to take out as many of Blue team and keep Tosh pinned down until Dylanna and Aal could go in and take out both Kath and Tosh themselves. It was obvious that this was some sort of a little revenge scheme that Aal and Dylanna had cooked up for something that had been done to slight the two of them. However Andie and Winlaleah didn't really care much about this, instead all they wanted to do was win the exercise and get more points than their opponents.

So far Tosh seemed to be trying to hit them but he wasn't really taking the time to aim his shots and was instead just spraying and praying in their general direction while he moved form cover to cover. Both of them found this to be odd but soon realized that he was just trying to distract them by drawing their fire. _"Keep Tosh occupied I'll go and take care of any guests he sends our way"_ sent Obi who then reloaded his rifle and headed back downstairs.

Obi had a unique talent that he never told anyone other than his teammates as well as the Ghost Academy administration about. Apparently, despite having only a six point nine on the Psi Index chart which was only moderately over the limit needed to enter the academy he was able to discern the exact positions of others via their thought patterns up to almost an inch and this was mostly a talent that was used by high level telepaths such as an eight or higher.

Obi walked opened the door to the entrance to the staircase where the opposing team would more than likely enter since this was the only way of getting onto the floor that Red team was on unless of course they decided to scale the wall which was unlikely considering there was no way for them to climb up the concrete walls without proper equipment. Equipment that they lacked.

Red team's CQC specialist hid himself in a darkened corner of the staircase and waited for the two thought patterns that were approaching his position to get closer before engaging them in combat. Obi's patience was soon paid off when he heard the door at the bottom of the staircase open. The individuals that were opening it were quite careful in their attempts to conceal their presence but they made just enough noise to give away their position to let him know that they were coming his way.

He waited for a few seconds until they made their way to the staircase before striking. He jumped off the railing of the upper portion of the next flight of stairs. Obi landed directly onto Amelia's shoulders which caused her body to lose its balance under the sudden weight increase which sent her falling head first into the stairs. The girl was rendered unconscious once she hit the stairs.

Alejandro turned around with his rifle and, gripping the barrel like a baseball bat and attempted to slam it right into Obi's side which would more than likely knock the wind out of him and leave him helpless for a follow up attack. However Obi managed to parry the blow by using his own rifle as a shield before giving a swift kick to Alejandro's jaw sending him backwards onto the stairs which knocked him out as well.

Obi smirked. _"Two down already"_ he sent to the rest of his teammates. This was much easier than they had orginally thought.

* * *

Upon getting the message from Obi, Dylanna smirked, she was really going to enjoy this. "Everything's ready" she said to Aal who nodded "Remember I get Tosh you get his little girlfriend" Dylanna said reminding him of the deal they had made with one another. Aal rolled his eyes and gave an exaggerated sigh in mock exasperation "Yeah yeah don't worry I remember the deal" he said. The other day Dylanna had caught sight of Tosh and Kath embracing the other and immediately assumed that they were both in a romantic relationship with one another. Rather than report this to the faculty she discussed a little scheme with Aal that they would not only defeat Kath and Tosh in combat but degrade the two of them as well. After Dylanna defeated Tosh in combat, Aal would go in and take care of Kath, beating the living shit out of her in full view of her boy toy while he remained completely helpless.

Dylanna and the rest of the team quickly surrounded Tosh and Kath both of whom had been forced to retreat to a small area that was filled with old SCVs. The two remaining members of Blue team were forced to back up against a large pile of scrap metal. Kath and Tosh were completely surrounded by Red team and were face to face with Dylanna and Aal. The two of them had triumphant smirks on their faces that almost caused the two remaining members of Blue team to rush over there and engage them in close combat but that was probably what Aal and Dylanna wanted them to do.

"Okay Toshy boy it's you and me again, so let's see if you really meant what you said back during that last spar we had!" Dylanna taunted her hands outstretched in a welcoming gesture. Tosh stepped forwards and sent _"Kath, stay out of this, this is between me and her"_ before the two of them started fighting.

As the two of them continued to fight with one another Kath looked at Aal's giddy expression while he yelled "Now this is what I came back here for!" Kath wanted nothing more than to stick that son of a bitch into a garbage bag and then hit him repeatedly with a club until the thrashing stopped at that point. However Kath realized that if she tried something like that right now then she'd probably get gunned down by the rest of Red team.

Seeing no other alternative she attempted to thought send to Lio who was nearby the group, standing amongst the graveyard of SCVs _"Lio, if you can hear me, please help, we need you!"_ however Lio didn't seem to be paying much attention to her _'They want to work, they have the power they just need some motivation'_ he thought.

This basically told Kath that Lio had obviously gone off the deep end. Kath turned her attention back to Tosh who was putting up a good fight but he showed subtle signs of weariness. The dark skinned beauty quickly deduced that this was because of the energy he had used during his effort to draw the fire of the opposing team while trying not to get hit by them.

Kath was about to try and assist Tosh despite his order to stay out of the fight when she heard the unmistakable sound of mechanical servos in motion from directly behind her. Kath turned around and saw that the SCVs were in motion but she knew that to be impossible, after all, _no one was piloting them_! Apparently the rest of Red team was apparently just as stunned as she was and although they tried to fight back the SCVs grabbed them all in their loading claws and kept them suspended up in the air.

As Aal Cistler was trapped up in the air thanks to the SCV's loading claw Kath came dangerously close to indulging herself in the sudden desire of unloading her rifle's entire clip directly into the bastard's face but managed to mentally restrain herself from doing so. Aal began to demand to know what kind of trick that Tosh and Kath had just pulled on them and was soon answered not by Tosh or Kath but by Lio who was on top of the shoulder of the SCV that was restraining Cistler.

"Oh no Aal this isn't one of their tricks, it's one of mine" he said with an almost uncharacteristic smirk on his face. It was obvious that Lio was enjoying this just as much as the rest of his team was. Lio leapt off of the shoulder of the machine and onto the ground. Tosh who was now standing nearby albeit with some help from Kath spoke up "Lio how in the hell did you manage to do this?" he asked. Not once since they started training together had Lio ever displayed this kind of skill with his powers.

Lio looked over at Tosh with a smile and said "They wanted to work, I just told them that they could"

At that point Aal Cistler decided to try and use his best skill to his advantage, manipulation. "Hey Lio, buddy, can I talk to you for a second?" he asked in a clearly fake congratulatory attitude. Lio looked over at the bastard with a look of pure hatred on his face "We don't' have anything to talk about Aal, never again" he declared. For a second Aal couldn't really believe that this was the same easily manipulated kid he had known during his time in Blue team.

However this wasn't much of a problem seeing as how Aal had prepared himself for this kind of situation before making his return to the Ghost Academy. The finance minister's son had brought with him a small supply of Hab as leverage over the bald trainee just in case he needed an ace in the hole. Reaching into his uniform's pocket with some effort Aal pulled out a small container filled with Hab "Hey Lio, I got some nice juicy Hab here for ya, just tell this machine to let us go and it's all yours" he said with a wolfish grin. He had him now.

Much to Aal's surprise however the boy instead reared back his right hand that had been curled into a fist and punched him directly in the young man's nose in which Lio was rewarded with a resounding crack which caused blood to slowly trickle down both entrances to the breathing orifice. "No, Aal, not again, never again, you're the user not me and I'm fed up with being used!" Lio exclaimed.

* * *

A few minutes later both teams were standing at attention in front of director Bick and superintendent Sarco Angelini "As a result of your performances in this training exercise, your following one has been cancelled" he declared much to the chagrin of the other trainees. Almost immediately protests were declared from both teams. Most of these protests raised points that they did well on that last exercise and that there was no reason to cancel the next one

"Enough!" Bick declared with a tone devoid of anything other than seriousness "Yes it's true that you all did well on your previous exercise which is why we're combining both teams into a single unit. This means that there'll be no more infighting, period. You're going to learn to work together whether you like it or not" Bick declared.

It was obvious just by the expressions on the newly combined team's faces that they were not happy with this arrangement but seeing as how there wasn't anything that they could really do about it they all kept their mouths shut. The next one to speak up was Sarco "We're going to send you to the Dominion military research facility on Altara there you will take part in a series of infiltration and combat exercises where you will work together as a cohesive military unit" he ordered.

The other trainees looked at one another and begrudgingly followed the director's orders.

* * *

To be continued.

Next: Nova talks with Raynor face to face and after words are exchanged she will make a decision that will alter her fate, forever.


	10. The Devil Himself?

StarCraft Ghost Warrior

Chapter 10

The Devil Himself?

disclaimer: I do not own the gaming masterpiece StarCraft, or any of its spin off products etc. (Do i really have to keep putting these things in?)

A/N: i've just gone over it and corrected most of the grammar mistakes that i've made

* * *

-Hyperion, Cantina-

* * *

It took a while but eventually after several long, extensive scans to make sure that the Hyperion's new guests weren't carrying any Zerg parasites, Nova, Delta and Andrew were finally let out of the Hyperion's sick bay. Raynor took the returning hero as well as his two accomplices to the Hyperion's bar/cantina much to Nova and Delta's surprise. To be honest, neither of them had been expecting that particular area of the ship would be the place for Andrew's debriefing. Nova had been thought that debriefings took place in a more private setting. After all that was what most militaries normally did after a covert mission had been completed, especially one that was a deep cover operation like the one that Andrew had just returned from.

The cantina was filled with a great many number of off duty crewmembers who were all enjoying their breaks and a lot of them had congratulated Andrew on his successful mission by giving him a toast. The Raiders raised their mugs up high and clanged them all together.

"To Andrew Cole, our man of the hour" declared the weapons officer, Hector Weiss "For overcoming the odds for the millionth time and pulling off what everyone thought to be impossible!" they all cheered before they lowered their mugs and downed much of the alcoholic liquid in just a few gulps. Once the toast had finally concluded the off duty crewmen went back to their drinks and chatted amongst themselves.

Raynor walked over to the nearest table and sat down before he gestured Andrew and his two companions to sit down as well. Once they all took a seat Raynor grabbed a nearby a glass and began to pour himself a drink from a nearby beer bottle that had the brand name "Starla's Stash" printed on it directly below a picture of a very well endowed brown haired woman in a scantily clad cowgirl outfit.

After the glass had almost been filled to the brim Raynor took a small sip of the liquid, sending a bit of the alcohol straight down his throat and into his system. Nova then proceeded to look at Raynor more than just a little strangely. Not only was Raynor conducting a covert operation debriefing in their ship's cantina but the man was also drinking alcohol while he did it?

"So what exactly happened out there, I thought that the mission was that you were only going to pick up Colin Phash, not a girlfriend and a few other passengers" he said enjoying the reaction from Andrew and Nova with the whole remark about the whole 'girlfriend' thing which made both Nova and Andrew blush a bit. This reaction made Raynor to grin for a few moments before he finally decided that it would be best to get straight down to business "Now all kidding aside, you mind telling me what exactly happened while you were at the Ghost Academy?" he asked curiously.

Not being one to waste time Andrew proceeded to explain to Raynor exactly what had transpired during his month long infiltration of the Ghost Academy. The rebel leader listened to his subordinate intently even as he refilled his mug with more of that 'Starla's Stash' stuff. Andrew continued to recount every minute detail from his stay at the Ghost Academy and subsequent flight from it with the others in tow, he exaggerated no detail and listed everything that may have been relevant to the operation that he had just gotten back from.

As Andrew did this, Nova took note of the way that Raynor had acted ever since he had met the newcomers on board his ship. Raynor didn't seem to be acting at all like the cold, calculating and ruthless terrorist leader that she had been lead to believe for the last couple of years. As Andrew continued to explain what had transpired during hsi time at the Ghost Academy, curiosity eating away at Nova's thoughts. Eventually without really thinking Nova dove into the man's thoughts, more specifically, his memories.

_Jim Raynor as well as several marines that bore the Sons of Korhal insignia were fighting tooth and nail against a group Confederate marines at a small outpost located on the orbital platforms over a planet called Tarsonis. After Raynor and the other crimson painted marines had finally managed to finish off the remaining soldiers he was just about to report their successful strike on the orbital platform to Mengsk when they all received a very alarming transmission from ex-confederate general, Edmund Duke himself "This is Duke, the Psi-Emitters are in place and ready for activation" he declared with a high and mighty tone. Although Nova had met a couple of members of the Duke family, the blond Ghost trainee had never once met general Edmund Duke but she had heard that he had been a serious glory hound if nothing else during his military career. _

_Before Raynor could make his objections to this startling revelation known, another voice soon cut in. This person's voice was female and her tone contained a mix between both shock and horror "Who the hell authorized the use of Psi-Emitters?!" the woman's voice, who was soon identified as Sarah Kerrigan demanded. A few moments later another voice came over the communication network, this one was emitting an air of authority that Nova instantly recognized as emperor Arcturus Mengsk himself. _

"_I did lieutenant." upon hearing Mengsk's voice, the outraged voice of Sarah Kerrigan soon came back on the communications link "The Confederates on Antiga were bad enough, but you're going to use the Zerg against an entire planet? This is insane!" she declared. Jim Raynor was clearly horrified and sick to his stomach at the mere thought of unleashing the Zerg against an entire planet that was filled with nearly three billion innocent lives! _

_Not wanting to see another fully fledged slaughter like the one on Antiga, Raynor spoke into his combat armor's mic attempt to talk some sense into Mengsk "She's right man, think this through" he pleaded but somehow Jim Raynor knew that Mengsk had already made up his mind and the fate of all that lived on Tarsonis had just been decided "I have thought it through believe me, you all have your orders, carry them out" the man said without any real emotion in his voice at all. _

_A little less than a day after the Psi-Emitters had been activated the Zerg arrived on Tarsonis en masse and over the next couple of days the Zerg swiftly overwhelmed the Confederate military in a literal tidlewave of claws and razor sharp teeth. Just a mere two to three days after the Zerg had begun their invasion of the planet, a large Protoss armada followed in their wake. Unlike with the last several planets the Protoss had been encountered at, the Protoss didn't immediately obliterate the planet by bombing it from orbit like they had done up until that point, instead they sent in several strike teams to the surface to engage the Zerg head on. _

_This new developement didn't go over very well with Mengsk who quickly became worried that the Confederate Old Families may use the opportunity provided to them by the attacking Protoss to escape. He ordered that Kerrigan head down to New Gettysburg and engage the Protoss, thereby buying the Zerg enough time to eliminate the remaining Confederates. Once Raynor and that reporter Michael Liberty had gotten wind about the mission, they immediately raced down to the planet below but by the time they arrived there they found that they were already too late, not a single trace of Kerrigan remained._

_The next memory was inside a ship, Raynor, Michael and Andrew the latter of whom was wearing a torn and partially bloodied T-shirt and jeans were looking at a holographic image of Mengsk who had a very pleased look on his face "Gentlemen you've all done very well. But remember we still have a job to do, the seeds of a new empire have been sewn and if we hope to reap-" Mengsk's little speech was cut off by Raynor who had a furious look on his face "To hell with you!" he all but shouted._

_The calm, composed political mask Mengsk always wore was finally ripped off, exposing the ugly and evil being that lurked underneath the façade. The pleased expression on Mengsk's transformed almost instantly into one of anger "You're making a terrible mistake, don't even think about trying to cross me, I've sacrificed too much to let this fall apart" he said obviously making a not so subtle threat towards everyone in the room. "You mean like how you sacrificed Kerrigan!?" Raynor demanded with absolute fury in his voice._

"_You'll regret that, you don't seem to realize my situation here. I will not be stopped, not by the you, the Confederates, the Protoss or anyone! I will rule this sector or see it burnt to ashes around me and if you try to get in my way, I will-" Mengsk's rant was then stopped by Raynor who had angrily cut the transmission._

Nova brought herself out of the man's memories and had a difficult time keeping the shock from becoming evident on her face. Everything, everything that Andrew had said was true. There was no doubt about it anymore, emperor Mengsk was just a power hungry dictator and nothing else. Even after Nova had seen that massacre being perpetrated by Ndoci and the marines under her command, she still had a few remaining doubts as to whether or not the Dominion military had actually known about what had transpired on that colony and that the woman had somehow managed to cover her own tracks.

She was also up until this point, very skeptical about Andrew's wild claims that Mengsk had managed to cause the destruction of Tarsonis by using the Zerg. But now it was clear that Mengsk was the devil himself while Raynor was the decent human being just as Andrew had claimed him to be.

Nova looked over at Andrew and noticed that he was at the part where they were making their escape off of Shi. Nova stood up and said "Excuse me, but, is there a restroom nearby?" Raynor nodded before pointing over towards the door that was closest to them "Down the hall, first door on your right, it should be marked" he stated before Nova all but ran off in that direction.

"What's with her?" asked Delta having noticed that Nova had seemed to have zoned out for a few minutes. Andrew didn't answer and instead looked over at Raynor and asked "You do realize that she was looking at your memories right?" Jim Raynor soon nodded as he refilled his glass once, Kerrigan had done something similar once, when they were still with the Sons of Korhal before they left Antiga Prime "It was a little obvious that she was doing something along the lines of that, yeah" he said before downing part of the drink.

Andrew sighed, he knew that something like this would happen. For the past two years Nova had been fed the Dominion's lies and propaganda that had surrounded Raynor's Raiders like flies on a corpse. Although she wasn't even close to being as patriotic as Tosh was about the rising power in the Korprulu Sector, she had been under the impression that the Dominion was working for the betterment of all humanity. What she had just witnessed probably had turned her whole world upside down…again. given all that Nova had just witnessed, it was obvious that she'd need some time to process this new information.

Raynor meanwhile did feel a little bit violated that someone would go sifting through his memories like that but it was to be expected he supposed. _'Wait a minute'_ thought Raynor as a new piece of information just hit him, Andrew's lady friend's last name was 'Terra' maybe she was related to the…no that couldn't be, almost the entire Terra family line had been brutally murdered in a terrorist attack back on Tarsonis two years ago and whatever had been left had more than likely been wiped out along with the rest of the Old Families when the Zerg overran the entire planet.

Before the rebel leader could get some confirmation, Andrew spoke up, apparently he had teeped his thoughts just a few moments before.

"In answer to your unasked question, yes she's the last remaining member of the Terra family and some of the additional passengers are members of the Old Families" Andrew explained having 'heard' the man's thoughts since Raynor wasn't really able to properly shield most of his surface thoughts. Because of this Delta, despite her relatively low PI level knew that a lot of people hated the Old Families and it seemed that Raynor was no exception if his surface thoughts were anything to go by.

The twelve year old girl was about to come to Nova's defense but before she could utter so much as a single word Raynor spoke up having apparently gotten over his initial shock over the fact that there were a few surviving members of the Confederate Old Families on board the Hyperion. "I thought I recognized that kid's name, well don't you worry about your friends we'll keep 'em safe until we meet up with the Umojans, they'll take them in, I'm sure, if only to piss off Mengsk if nothing else" Raynor explained.

Delta checked the man's thoughts and saw that he was indeed telling the truth, that is if the surface thoughts of his mind was anything to go by. The twelve year old telepath wanted to check deeper just to be safe but she didn't have the level of telepathy that Nova had and was therefore unable to breach Raynor's mental defenses. So Delta resolved to just wait and ask Nova what it was she had seen while she was looking in the so called terrorist's head.

Finally Delta responded "Thank you" she said. Raynor gave the girl a kind look "Sure thing kiddo" he said before the door that Nova had exited out of just a few moments earlier, she appeared to have finished absorbing at least some of the new truths about the situation with the Dominion and Raynor's Raiders.

Andrew looked at Nova, a little concerned "Nova are you alright?" he asked already knowing that she probably wasn't. Everything she had thought to have been true had just been turned on its head. Nova didn't verbally respond and instead opted to just nod her head a little. Andrew looked like he was about to say something but before he could utter one syllable to Nova he stopped himself.

The girl needed some time to fully digest the truth of what she had just learned. The best thing that he could do at the moment was show Nova and their other guests on board the Hyperion where they were going to be staying until rendezvoused with the Umojans.

* * *

-Ghost Academy, Library-

* * *

After classes had finally ended Kath headed for the library for some peace and relative quiet as well as some time away from her new teammates. When she thought about that new arrangement she all but scowled. When she had heard director Bick give the order to merge both Red and Blue teams, she wanted nothing more than to voice her own objections towards the decision. she felt that she had to make some kind of a protest against being on a team with that bastard Aal Cistler again.

However despite her own misgivings, Kath had managed to keep herself from uttering so much as a single syllable in protest. Besides it probably wouldn't have even mattered if every single member of the newly formed team Grey had protested against it. Once director Bick's decisions had been made it was nearly impossible to dissuade him otherwise.

Now that both teams were combined Kath had felt the need to watch her back from both Aal and Dylanna. The reason that she needed to watch out for Aal was obvious, that guy fit the very definition of the word: 'bastard' to a T. Kath was also more than positive that the son of a bitch was somehow responsible for her father's current legal predicament.

After all Aal had started to taunt her with her dad shortly after her father informed her about those accounting irregularities with Sector Nine even though there was no way he could've known about what was happening to her dad until he had been kicked out of the the first time Academy. And now with this latest news about her father being arrested by order of the finance ministry she couldn't stop picturing her father in her mind, all by himself in a prison cell, cold and alone.

Kath's eyes squinted closed and she shook such thoughts away from her mind, her dad would be fine, he'd done nothing wrong and the cops that were investigating him would find that out for themselves. However those kinds of thoughts didn't lift her spirits as much as she thought they would.

"Kath are you okay?" asked a kind yet strong voice that she recognized almost instantly. Gabriel Tosh. Kath's eyes opened and she saw Tosh looking at her with a concerned look. For a brief moment Kath found herself unable to say a word but soon found her voice "I-I'm fine, I'm just, thinking" she stated as she looked at the ground, not wanting to go into too much detail. "About your dad" he said as more of a statement rather than a question.

Kath looked back up at Tosh with a surprised look on her face and was about to ask him if he had taken a peek inside her mind when he put up his hands defensively "I didn't exactly look in your head Kath, you were practically screaming it, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if people in the other room could 'hear' you" he explained. Kath sighed, it seemed she needed to put some more time into improving her mental defenses.

"Try not to worry too much, your dad will probably be fine, I mean, from what you've told me, he doesn't really seem like the criminal type" Tosh said in an attempt at reassuring his friend. Kath almost sighed, it wasn't that she didn't believe that her father was the type to commit crimes for his own personal gain. No, she was much more worried about those who were investigating him.

Somehow she knew that when the Finance Minister's cronies didn't find anything that they would quite possibly just manufacture evidence against her father from thin air and find it somewhere where they would conveniently find it. Besides even if they didn't do that, everyone knew that Aldeo Cistler (Aal Cistler's dad) had a lot of sway in the Dominion government, especially in the judiciary courts. If her father's case did make it to court, Kath doubted that he stood much of a chance.

Kath shook those thoughts out of her mind. She needed something else to think about other than her dad's legal problems. In an attempt to clear her thoughts of her father's current legal predicament Kath turned her attention to Tosh "Hey Tosh what are you doing here exactly?" she asked.

For a moment Tosh looked somewhat hesitant to reply to that question. After a few seconds he took in a deep breath and responded "I just wanted to see how you were holding up after everything that's happened over the past week" he explained. It was true, ever since the deaths of their three other friends in that damned accident, she had bottled almost everything up inside her and didn't talk to anyone about how she had felt about what had happened.

Kath sighed "Honestly it's been a hell of a lot to try and take in, I mean Nova was just finally starting to act like a person rather than just some unhinged loner that had a one track mind. I didn't really know much about Delta but she seemed like a good kid, and I think we both know what I'm going to say about Andrew…" she trailed off letting Tosh fill in the blanks.

It was true, Andrew was a nice guy and he didn't deserve to die in some stupid accident, neither did Nova and Delta either for that matter. The dark skinned girl then continued "And director Bick and superintendent Sarco are only making things worse by making us have to deal with Dylanna, Aal and their little gang almost every second of the day" she finished with a sigh. Kath also didn't bother mentioning the fact that Dylanna had been making it obvious ever since the team merging that she didn't like Kath. This was odd, considering that Dylanna had originally focused almost all of her anger out on Nova rather than Kath, why was Dylanna targeting Kath now?

As she tried to come up with some kind of a reason as to why Dylanna was being more of a bitch than usual to Kath lately, the dark haired was brought out of her thoughts by Tosh whose face had an unusually nervous expression on it. For a brief moment Kath wondered why that was considering that Tosh almost never looked nervous. However her unasked question was soon answered by the next sentence out of Tosh's mouth.

"I was kind of wondering if you wanted to go and hangout in the courtyard for a little while?" he asked hopefully. Kath looked up at the big guy and gave him a playful grin "Oh really, and is the fact that the sun is just about ready to set have anything to do with this request of yours?" she asked teasingly.

Tosh all but sputtered out a small "Yes" to which Kath let out a small giggle, the rare look of nervousness on Tosh's face was nearly priceless "Alright big guy come on before we miss the sunset" she said before grabbing one of his muscular arms and proceeded to drag him towards the entrance to the courtyard.

* * *

-Hyperion, Guest Quarters-

* * *

Andrew had just shown the Hyperion's new guests to their temporary housing. The room that the surviving Old Family members had been given wasn't all that much to look at. There were two sets of bunk beds, a dresser, a moderately sized bathroom with showers and a sink, and last but not least a small kitchen that had a small table placed in the middle of it.

After allowing the guests a few moments to take in their new temporary living arrangements Andrew spoke up "I know it's definitely not a five star hotel but it's probably a hell of a lot better than your previous living conditions" he said. Antonia Tygore let out a small chuckle "Considering that we had to live in very small cramped spaces for the past several months _and_ be hunted by the Zerg for several weeks, this room is a five star hotel in comparison" she joked. Everyone shared a small laugh at that one.

Despite the fact that they were safe for the moment, the four remaining members of the Old Families still had a lot on their minds. Where were they going to go from here? Who would take them in given their parents' histories? And the most pressing of them all: How were they going to stay alive with their families' number one enemy in charge of perhaps the most powerful Terran factions in the Korprulu Sector who would probably like nothing more than having all of their heads mounted on pikes?

Given that they had no training in keeping their thoughts private to any telepath that may be listening in, Andrew 'heard' every word that they were thinking about. It was probably an endless nightmare for them. They found themselves rescued from one group of monsters only to find themselves being hunted by another one that was more determined that they die. Eventually Andrew decided to try and calm their nerves as best he could and spoke up "Don't worry, Raynor's already contacting the Umojans, I'm sure that they'd be willing to give you all political asylum from the Dominion"

The surviving heirs to the Old Families looked over at Andrew with surprised looks on their faces "Did you-" started Rockham before Andrew held up a hand in the universal sign to stop "I didn't really have to, the looks on your faces say it all" Andrew stated. Rockham and the others didn't really know how to respond to that but Morgan still had a question "But how do you know that the Umojans will be any happier to see us than the Dominion would be?" he asked.

Andrew gave Morgan a shrug "I can't really give you any guarantees that they'll end up throwing you guys a party or anything but they hate the Dominion almost as much as we do and they'll probably give you political asylum if only to annoy the hell out of Mengsk some more" he said almost nonchalantly as he turned to leave the four other teens to their thoughts.

Right before he took a step outside the door he said "If there's anything you need to know just ask one of the Hyperion's crewmembers" that having been said, Andrew walked out the door, letting it slide to a close right behind him. Upon exiting Andrew headed for his own quarters that was only a dozen meters down the hall from where he was standing. It had been a long day and he was more than content to go and get some sleep.

* * *

In another room near the one that Andrew had only just left, Nova and Delta were attempting to settle into their new environment. While Delta had already fallen asleep on the lower bunk within a few minutes of getting into it, Nova was still on top looking up at the cold, hard, metal plated ceiling that was just a few feet above her. Her mind still swimming through the information that she had been given. After she had excused herself during Andrew's debriefing she went to the restroom because it would allow her the chance to gather her thoughts and try to come to grips with what it was she had just seen.

Now that Nova had though, she knew that she had to join the Raiders, to fight the Dominion. What Mengsk had done on Tarsonis and everything that followed was appalling to say the least. That insane bastard needed to be put down before he could destroy anyone else's life in the name of his mad ambitions. Nova had to tell Andrew and Raynor about her decision to stay aboard the Hyperion and help fight against the Dominion before they rendezvoused with the Umojans. That only left Delta, who Nova was unsure would stay with them despite Nova having told her what she had seen while in Raynor's mind.

Despite the dangers, Nova actually hoped that the girl would join Raynor's Raiders as well, mainly because Delta had become something akin to the little sister that Nova never had. Then there was Andrew Cole, he had saved the two of them from a lifetime of mindless service to a ruthless dictator and because of the near suicidal missions that Ghosts were sent on they were given a very short life expectancy, with this in mind, Delta would probably be dead within a couple of months after her graduation from the Ghost Academy.

The moment that that disturbing thought entered her mind Nova immediately started to make her way off of the bunk as quietly as she possibly could, so she wouldn't inadvertently wake up Delta. Once she was at the door leading into the room she pushed the open button on the side of the wall and walked out into the hallways of the Hyperion. The hallways had much better lighting than the ones of the freighter that they had been living in for the past several days. However it wasn't nearly as quiet. There were many stray surface thoughts of people being broadcasted. From those that were already sleeping to those who were working part of the graveyard shift.

However Nova managed to block out most of these thoughts and simply continued on to Andrew's quarters and as she got closer she once again started to think of the young man she had met a little over a month earlier. Lately, Nova had begun to just feel happy merely by being around him. It was like his presence of being near her had an uplifting effect of some kind and whenever she felt this way, her heart rate would increase by a small margin. It was a strange feeling and it felt confusing at times.

Nova, realizing that she was close to Andrew's room, pushed those thoughts out of her mind and walked over to the door before proceeding to knock a few times on it. As the blond telepath did this she hoped that Andrew wasn't already asleep and that she was just waking him up. A few seconds later the door slid open and Andrew stepped out of his room with a curious look on his face.

"Nova, What are you doing up? I thought you'd be asleep by now" he asked curiously. For a moment Nova wondered the same thing, he didn't look like he had been sleeping and he was still clad in his Ghost armor. However Nova shook those thoughts from her head and instead decided that it would be best to simply get straight to the point of why she had come.

"I want to join the Raynor's Raiders" she declared, certainty and determination in her voice.

* * *

To be continued

A/N: I know it's shorter than most of my chapters and I hate to leave you at a cliffhanger but I thought that I'd kept my loyal readers waiting long enough.


	11. Decision Making

StarCraft Ghost Warrior

Chapter 11

Decision Making

A/N: Reviews help motivate me to write more chapters at a faster pace.

Disclaimer: I don't own the gaming masterpiece known as StarCraft otherwise this story would be canon instead of just a fanfic

* * *

-Altara, Dominion Military Research Facility-

* * *

In a large, barren and utterly desolate valley on the planet of Altara there was a large four story building that had been completely surrounded by a thick prefabricated concrete wall that almost made it look similar to an old earth castle. Outside these walls was what one would call a literal a maze of defenses. Directly outside the walls was a line of bunkers, missile turrets and auto-guns that kept a watchful eye for any possible intruders.

Ordinarily this kind of ordinance would be exorbitant for a mere research facility, but due to Altara's close proximity to Zerg controlled territory many in the Dominion military had argued that these precautions were reasonably warranted. Although the facility appeared to be relatively small compared to other Dominion bases on the outside, there were an additional seven floors that went underneath the facility.

The underground research labs were strictly off-limits to anyone that didn't have the necessary security clearances and those who did never so much as said a word about what happened. This level of secrecy lead those who worked aboveground to speculate on what went on down there. In fact, one time some of the facility's aboveground workers claimed to have spotted a number of convict laborers go down into the research labs only to never come back up.

Soon after that incident, rumors had started to circulate within the facility about what was going on down there, all of which were more disturbing than the last. Despite repeated assurances from the administration staff rumors persisted and eventually the lower levels were given the nickname "The Dungeon".

Inside one of the lower levels of the Dungeon, there was a spacious room that contained several moderately sized holding pens, inside each of these holding pens contained a single test subject that was originally a convict laborer that had been transferred in from New Folsom. If one was paying attention to the convicts who were sealed behind their soundproofed cells one could see that they were all scared beyond rational thought.

At first glance one might think that they were afraid of the Zerg infestor that was inside a pen located directly on the other side of the room. However most of the convicts weren't even paying attention to the oversized insect. Instead they were all looking directly at one of the other human test subjects that had just been dragged out of his cell by a pair of marines clad in CMC powered combat armor.

The man was quickly restrained on a wheeled operating table near the center of the room despite his struggles. The convict had a fearful look on his face as he pleaded with his captors not to inflict the same horrors that he had seen inflicted on several of the others that had been brought down into the Dungeon.

The scientists ignored him and one of the scientists whose name tag read "Dr. Friedrich Genzken" approached the operating table from the direction where the Zerg infestor was being kept. Doctor Friedrich Genzken was a man in his early fifties. He had short graying hair that was almost always kept neatly combed and trimmed to perfection. Genzken's eyes were light blue in color that almost looked grey if one wasn't looking hard enough. In the doctor's right hand was a syringe that was filled with a sinister looking dark purple liquid.

As Genzken approached the operating table and upon seeing the syringe the convict's eyes widened before he began to cry for someone, anyone to show mercy. The syringe carrying doctor looked over at the other scientists with a look that would be best described as irritation. The other gathered scientists flinched at the look that the doctor was giving them and one of their number quickly walked over to the operating table and put a muzzle over the man's mouth muffling the man's irritatingly repetitive pleas.

Genzken then looked over at one of the technicians who was nervously holding the camera that was supposed to record a log of the…experiment. The tech was holding the camera down and hadn't even pushed the record button "Well what are you waiting for, we can't begin until you stop acting like a scared little child and start recording the experiment immediately!" the man yelled angrily. The tech fumbled with the device for a moment before he pushed the recording button.

No one in the facility wanted to get on doctor Genzken's bad side, ever. Not the doctors, not the techs, not even the security ever wanted to mess with him. This fear of doctor Genzken stemmed from the rumor that one of the scientists grew a conscience and made a futile attempt to send a message to UNN about the kind of experiments that Genzken and the others had been performing. Security found out and under Genzken's orders, made the scientist become one of the test subjects for their project. They still had what was once the good doctor in one of the holding cells on that particular wing.

Doctor Genzken put the syringe's needle up against the man's neck before pushing it into the man's skin. Genzken hit the injection mechanism and sent the liquid into his bloodstream. At first there wasn't any kind of a reaction from the test subject, but then the man that was strapped down to the table started to convulse violently as if he was having a seizure. When the change in the man started the doctors and other staff began to take the man back to his cell that was only just a few feet away.

The technicians and scientists that weren't helping to move the table were keeping as much distance from the wheeled table and the man who was writhing in pain as they could without getting on Genzken's bad side, even the security officers who were clad in CMC powered combat armor kept as much distance as they possibly could. Zerg-like appendages started to appear beneath the skin before they burst from their fleshy prison and started writhing around almost uncontrollably.

Seeing the mutation in the convict accelerating the researchers and technicians quickened their pace as the put the table back into the containment cell. Genzken meanwhile simply walked alongside the table almost as if he was out for a simple stroll at a park with a neutral expression on his face but anyone could see the corners of his mouth twitching downwards. He was displeased.

Once the table was inside the cell the tech closest to the door hit the switch and the thick transparent barrier slid and locked firmly into place. The man's body was now growing new appendages that were much in common amongst infested individuals, the test subject's hands turned into claws and parts of his skin started to develop a chitinous look to it. The now infested human continued to struggle with the restraints until they finally broke from the creature's now monstrous strength.

The infested Terran turned its gaze over at Genzken who had positioned himself just a few inches away from the thick transparent barrier that separated the two, a calculating look on his face. The infested Terran let out a roar before running up to the barrier and started banging it with its hands. Genzken didn't even flinch even as the scientists and techs let out cries of alarm while the marines trained their weapons on the abomination that was just behind the glass.

Genzken walked over to a nearby computer terminal and typed in a few commands. After he finished all of the cells in the room started to slowly lower into the floor. After the cells finished lowering into their own smaller prisons, Genzken's subtle frown became more and more noticeable.

One of the other scientists, a man by the name of Dennis Howe walked up to Genzken and wore an extremely nervous look on his face. Dennis was a man of American descent and upon graduating from the Korhal University of Medical Science had been asked by the military to help run projects for them that would more than likely end up saving countless lives. At first Howe thought that he was going to be working on some kind of medical breakthrough that would help save soldiers' lives. Then he was assigned to Altara and forced to work on this particular project.

"Um, doctor Genzken sir, what do you want us to do with the test subject?" Howe asked. Genzken's first impulse was to order the creature's immediate destruction but he quickly decided that it would be more prudent not to. After all this test subject had been exposed to a variant of the Zerg virus that they had no record of, therefore he could provide them with useful data for them to sift through or it may even provide them a clue as to how complete their project.

After a few long seconds Genzken responded "I want you to keep it locked up for now, it may yet prove to be useful to us" Howe nodded before he went to relay the decision to the rest of the scientists. Genzken almost pulled at his hair in frustration. If he had known that these test subjects would be useful he would have simply fed them to the other Zerg creatures that they kept down in some of the other labs.

Over the past several months doctor Genzken had used up almost every single test subject he had been given. They had attempted to slow the Zerg infestation's progress with certain drugs and when that proved to be of little use he tried to speed it up but that failed to do anything either. He only hoped that their supply of test subjects would hold up, they were going through them fast.

Genzken then started to ponder other possible scenarios in his mind. If low level psionics would work than perhaps what he needed was one that was well over five, perhaps even a nine or a ten. Yes! That had to be what he needed for project: Overlord to be a success. How fortunate that there were several Ghost Academy trainees coming to visit his charming little facility on a 'training' exercise. All he needed to do was to make sure that one of them suffered an _accident_ during their stay at his facility.

* * *

-Hyperion, Outside the Captain's Quarters-

* * *

Andrew and nova were standing in front of the entrance to Raynor's room. Just a few hours earlier Nova had gone to Andrew's room to inform him that she had started to express an interest in joining the Raiders. At first Andrew didn't really know how to respond to that but eventually he just told her that she'd have to wait until some time during late morning in order to talk with Raynor.

After that Nova had gone back to her quarters and simply relaxed on her bed for well over an hour before she finally fell into a dreamless sleep for which she was truly thankful for. The last thing that Nova wanted was to experience the moment she witnessed her parents and brother die in front of her and her time in the Gutter of Tarsonis. A few minutes after Nova had awakened from her slumber, she asked Andrew if he could lead her to Raynor's quarters. She also felt that him being there would help make her feel a little more confident when she made her request to Raynor.

Nova let out the breath that she had unconsciously been holding in before she walked up to the door that lead into Raynor's quarters. Nova raised her arm and knocked on the door a couple of times. Less than a moment later the door slid open and the two psionics saw Jim Raynor in the same attire he usually wore and although he tried to appear that he was fine, it didn't take a telepath to tell that the guy was having a hangover the size of a Protoss mothership.

Andrew barely managed to let out an annoyed groan at his commanding officer, Raynor must have had a lot to drink last night, if there was one thing that Andrew disliked about Raynor then it would have to be the man's drinking habits. After all, any decent battlefield commander needed to keep his or her head in the game as much as possible and being completely hung-over before they were about to engage in an operation, even if that operation was little more than a glorified delivery run was a stupid idea. The Ghost Operative then started to consider blowing the booze that Raynor enjoyed out of an airlock later but Raynor's drinking habits weren't the reason that the two of them were there.

"What do you two need?" Raynor asked politely even as he rubbed his forehead tenderly. Resisting the urge to tell Raynor that he should stop drinking that crap the night before the Raiders underwent an operation, instead Andrew bit his lip and allowed Nova to take the floor. At first the young telepath seemed a little hesitant but she soon found her voice "I want to join the Raiders" she declared with a very determination look in her eyes. It was a look that Raynor immediately recognized.

It was a look of pure confidence and determination that the former marshal had seen in Sarah Kerrigan's eyes back when she was still human, before the Zerg took her and turned her into that, abomination. Raynor quickly put those thoughts out of his head and hoped that the two hadn't picked up on it. Raynor started to consider the girl's offer. Another telepath could make a very valuable addition to the Raiders and it was obvious, to Raynor at least that Andrew and Nova were smitten with each other, they just didn't know it yet.

The leader of the Raiders let out a small smile when he saw the two psionics' faces do a very good impression of an overripe tomato. Despite the obvious fun that Raynor had been having teasing them, he decided that it would be best to get serious with the young woman in front of him "Are you absolutely sure you want join up?" he inquired.

Nova's determined face showed that she had already completely made up her mind before Raynor had even asked her that question. "Positive" she said. Raynor then shrugged nonchalantly "Okay then, consider yourself part of the Raynor's Raiders" the blond telepath/telekinetic looked at Raynor dumbfounded. Nova had thought that she had to go through some kind of a test or something like that before Raynor would accept her into the Raiders.

Raynor seemed to have noticed this and cocked an eyebrow while asking "Why are you looking at me like that for?" at first Nova didn't seem to be able to reply to Raynor's question, instead she stammered for a moment or two before she finally answered "I guess I just didn't know what to expect when I asked" she shrugged. Raynor gave the two Ghosts smile and said "Well then I'll expect both of you to head for hanger bay 2 at 1000 hours, dismissed" he ordered.

Andrew and nova both gave their commanding officer a sharp salute before heading back down the hallway. _'Those two make a lovely couple'_ thought Raynor at the top of his head, hoping that the two of them would _hear_ that little comment. Much to his disappointment this wasn't the case, or at least not that he could see. So Raynor silently resolved to try a little bit harder next time.

The two continued down the hallway for a while longer until Andrew started to look strangely nervous, "Uh, Hey, we've got a good hour and a half until we reach the Umojans, do you want me to show you around the ship?" he asked lamely before attempting to cover his tracks "I mean, if you're going to be working with us you may as well know what it is you're doing" he elaborated with a nervous blush on his face.

"That sounds nice" said Nova who sounded more than pleased to spend more time with the other Ghost operative. The two continued down the hall, Andrew explaining where they'd be going as they went.

* * *

Matt Horner, second in command of the Raynor's Raiders was standing on the bridge going over the report that Andrew had sent him yesterday. Despite witnessing most if not all the crazy things that Andrew had managed to pull off in the past he still had a difficult time believing that Andrew had managed to pull a stunt like this off without much of a hitch. However it was to be expected, Andrew had a habit of accomplishing what many considered to be impossible.

Matt was so engrossed in reading the report that he didn't hear the door slide open and a pair of footsteps come in until one of the new arrivals on the bridge spoke up "Hello Matt" called out a very familiar voice, one that Matt Horner hadn't heard in well over a month.

The second in command of Raynor's Raiders turned around and saw Andrew Cole clad in civilian garb that he almost never wore since he had always preferred to be in his Ghost armor. Next to him was a girl that was about Andrew's age that he didn't recognize. The young woman had long blonde hair that was tied back into a ponytail and was also wearing civilian garb. Matt briefly wondered what that young woman was doing up there before Andrew spoke up.

"Hey Matt, it's been a while" said Cole with a grin on his face before he looked over at the girl he was with "Nova this is Matt Horner, the second in command of the Raiders, Matt this is Nova Terra, she is our latest recruit to the Raiders, I'm giving her a tour around the ship until we reach the Umojans" he said introducing the two of them as well as answering Matt's unasked question. The second in command of Raynor's Raiders looked at Andrew with some surprise on his face "Really, when did this happen?" he asked. "A little less than an hour ago actually, Jim Raynor allowed me to join up" said Nova

Matt Horner stroked his chin in thought. Judging from what was written in Andrew's report it seemed that the only reason that the last member of the Terra Family agreed to escape the Ghost Academy was because she didn't want to undergo the mind wipe procedure that all trainees were to undergo upon graduating the Ghost Academy and had shown no interest in joining the Raiders. This made Matt curious as to what the reason was behind this young woman's change of heart.

Always one to get straight to the point Matt Horner asked "Just out of curiosity, what made you want to join the Raiders?" if one looked closely enough they could see a fire in Nova's eyes as she gave her response to Matt "Let's just say that Andrew helped me see the true face of the Terran Dominion" she explained. Matt nodded. Whatever it was that Nova had been shown had to have been pretty damn convincing for her to not only join him in his escape of the Ghost Academy but to join the Raiders as well.

The second in command of the Raynor's Raiders was broken out of his thoughts by Andrew who asked "So how have things been going since I infiltrated the Ghost Academy?". Matt Horner let a sigh "I'm not going to lie to you, things haven't been going to well lately. We lost two whole squads since you left and we haven't been able to do much damage to the Dominion and for the last couple of weeks they've been practically right on our tail and preventing us from doing much damage to them or even getting a decent resupplying operation" he explained.

Andrew let out a sigh, he had no idea that things were going that poorly for them. Despite the near desperation of the situation, the young Ghost operative had faith that their fortunes would come around very soon. After all, they were about to get a huge payday from the Umojans if what Andrew had been hearing around the ship was correct, this would really help to quell some of the financial problems that they had been having.

Matt and the two Ghost operatives talked for a while before a chiming noise started to come from Andrew's watch. The young telepath/telekinetic brought up his hand to check the time and let out a sigh, "Nova it looks like the tour's going to have to wait a little while, we're almost to the rendezvous point which means were going to have to suit up" Andrew explained. Nova gave a simple nod as a response before she and Andrew headed off leaving Matt and the other members of the Hyperion's bridge crew to get back to their duties.

* * *

-Hyperion, Hanger Bay 2-

* * *

Morgan and the other Old Family survivors sat waiting along with Colin Phash and Delta Emblock in the hanger bay for the Umojans to finally arrive and take them into protective custody. Despite having several days time for everything to sink in, Morgan Calabas and the others still had a very difficult time wrapping their heads around what had happened to them the past couple of days. Morgan sat in the fetal position up against one of one of the many crates that were scattered throughout the hanger.

Morgan's mind had been replaying the events during the past couple of days over and over again. He was still having trouble trying to get past the fact that his whole family had been completely wiped out by the Zerg back on Tarsonis and whatever was left of them were probably still back in the ruins of the capital city somewhere.

The worst part of it all was that the last image of his father that Morgan had was of him in a panicked state sending them a panicked prerecorded message to him and his friends telling them to get to get to Shi. The last member of the Calabas family could still remember the fear in his father's eyes. It was almost as if his dad knew that he probably wasn't going to get off of Tarsonis alive.

Hell Morgan never even get a chance to say goodbye to either of his parents before he and the others left for Tyrador IX since he had been out running his business. Even after he and the others landed on Tyrador IX, his parents rarely contacted him and when they did it was always through an intermediary.

In a desperate attempt to get himself away from the thoughts of his dead family and friends Morgan's mind wandered to the one missing member of their group, Nova. _'Is she running late or something?'_ he wondered idly to himself. Earlier when he and the others went down to the hanger to await their transport they quickly noticed that Nova wasn't among their number and when they asked Delta about why that was she informed them that Nova had left a note saying that there was something important she had to do and that she'd meet them in the hanger before Umojans arrived. It had been well over an hour since then, what the hell was she doing?

Morgan was just about to ask someone if there was anyway that he could get in touch with the last member of their little group when Antonia spoke up "Just relax Morgan, I'm sure that Nova will be here soon" she said. The last heir to the Calabas family looked over at Antonia with an odd look "So _you're_ a telepath now too?" he asked with a voice that was positively dripping with sarcasm. Antonia couldn't manage keep a wide grin from forming on her face as she responded "Morgan you give yourself _way_ too much credit, it doesn't take a telepath to know what you're thinking" she joked.

Before Morgan could utter a response one of the doors that lead into the hanger bay opened. Simultaneously everyone turned their heads to look at the new arrivals and saw Jim Raynor along with Nova and Andrew who were both clad in Ghost armor. Raynor walked up to the group that had been previously just been lounging around and proceeded to clear his throat before he addressed them

"Okay everybody listen up, the Umojan battlecruiser New Dawn is already in the system and they're sending in a dropship to pick you all up in a few minutes before they take you to Umoja and into protective custody, so I hope you all have whatever possessions that you plan on bringing with you" he explained. Just about everyone that was in the small crowd in front of him felt emotionally uplifted. The long, seemingly endless journey that they had all endured was finally starting to come to a close.

Delta Emblock felt her facial expression to change to that of a smile. After everything that she had endured throughout her life she now had a decent chance at a brighter future. Delta looked over at her surrogate big sister and quickly ran up to her "Nova why aren't you excited like everyone else?" the twelve year old asked.

After Raynor had finished his little announcement everyone that was in the group that she had been traveling with was excited to finally be given a chance to live a relatively normal existence away from all the fighting and death that had been ravaging much of the Korprulu Sector but Nova didn't really seem all that excited. Although she seemed happy, Nova didn't seem to be nearly as excited as everyone else. Delta was about to ask her surrogate big sister why she didn't seem as excited as everyone else when Nova suddenly spoke up "Uh, everyone I have something to say" she said a little nervously.

Nova took in and released a deep breath "I'm staying aboard the Hyperion" she stated bluntly. Almost everyone's mouth went agape at this new revelation. The only ones that didn't look at all surprised were Andrew and Raynor which told Delta and the others that they knew of this before Nova made her announcement. The reactions from Nova's childhood friends and Delta were almost instantaneous. They gave a barrage of questions, in an attempt to get some kind of an answer as to why she wanted to join the Raiders.

Nova put her arms out in front of her defensively signaling everyone to be quiet. Once everyone had stopped talking the blond telepath/telekinetic spoke up to the small crowd in front of her "Because Mengsk isn't what's best for humanity and after everything he's done to gain power, someone has to stop him" she explained. Of course there were a number of other reasons regarding her desire to stay aboard the Hyperion but they were personal.

Delta looked over at Nova tentatively for a few moments before her facial expression changed from surprised to that of determination "Well if you're staying then I'm staying" she said resolutely.

Raynor then looked over at the twelve year old girl with a stern expression on his face "Sorry kid but that's not happening" he stated. The last thing that Raynor wanted was to have a kid that was no older than twelve fighting in the Raiders. The two female psionics looked over at Raynor with expressions of surprise and disappointment.

The leader of Raynor's Raiders put his arms up defensively "I'm sorry kid but I can't let someone that's barely even an adolescent to join the Raiders" he explained and when he saw Delta's hurt expression he decided to elaborate further "We don't use kids as soldiers, period, the only reason that we let Andrew join was because he was already at the standard enlistment age for some of the Confederate fringe colonies when we formed the Raiders"

Delta was about to make a remark about having been in the Ghost Academy learning how to fight for almost a year but before she could start an argument Andrew came to their defense "Raynor I think that Delta should stay with the Raiders" he stated. Raynor turned to look over at Andrew with a very serious expression "Look Andrew, you know full well that we don't use kid soldiers, _period_" declared Raynor with a very serious look on his face.

"Raynor I'm not suggesting that she go into combat, at least not until she gets older, what I am suggesting is that she help to take on a support role on board the Hyperion helping with some of the crew, I have heard Swann saying that he could use some help down in the hanger bay more than once, and Delta here has some experience with mechanical engineering" Andrew explained. It was true, Delta had actually done some repairs on some of the cargo loading equipment on the freighter a day after they had rescued the last surviving members of the Confederate Old Families back on Shi.

Raynor started to think it over in his head and saw that it wasn't all that bad and Swann had all but begged him to find a new helper down in the hanger deck areas of the ship. After a few moments of silence the rebel commander let out a sigh "Alright, fine, the kid can stay, for now, but she's not going out into combat until she hits at least sixteen, no exceptions" Raynor said reluctantly.

The reaction from Delta was almost instant, her face lit up with a cheerful smile and she gave Raynor a salute "Thank you sir I'll do my best" Raynor raised an eyebrow at the girl's display. It almost reminded Raynor of when Andrew had first joined the Raiders. Only back then his was less perky and energetic much more serious given the situation that he had been in at the time.

"Eh, okay then, at ease" he said. Delta immediately stopped saluting but she still kept that same ecstatic look on her face. Raynor then looked back at the last surviving members of the Confederate Old Families and saw that they were talking with Nova, most likely saying their goodbyes to their friends.

Andrew was currently sitting down on some of the supply crates about ten feet away and silently watched the exchange between Nova and her friends. He knew better than to intrude on what was more than likely a personal moment for them. The Ghost operative looked over at the hanger bay doors which connected to a large airlock that was large enough for seven Vikings to fit in before it ran out of room.

Just a few seconds later there was a loud mechanical groan as the inner doors of the airlock slowly started to open. Once the doors opened fully it revealed a Umojan dropship. The dropship slowly hovered towards one of the landing pads in the hanger before it slowly landed on one of them. The dropship's engines hummed for a few moments more before they slowed to a stop.

The moment that the engines had finally turned off the ramp that lead into the space transport lowered and several Umojan marines, clad in CMC powered combat armor disembarked and stood at the edges of the ship. They were there just for the Umojans to show off to the crew of the Hyperion. A few moments later two men came down the dropship's ramp. One of them was a middle aged man with graying hair a neatly trimmed beard and had a very militaristic demeanor that was evident as he walked down the ramp.

The other man was at least a decade younger, it was obvious that this guy was a civilian judging by his choice of clothing and the way he walked. The man bore a very strong resemblance to the silent six year old that was huddled up silently against one of the crates. It didn't take long for everyone to deduce that this was former Terran Dominion Senator Corbin Phash, Colin's father. Already knowing that his father was on board the Hyperion, Colin all but jumped up and ran over to his father the instant that he spotted him. Andrew and Raynor watched the father and son embrace each other for the first time in almost a year and smiled. It was times like this that they truly enjoyed their jobs.

As the father and son shared a tearful reunion the military Umojan officer walked towards Raynor, Andrew, Nova and her friends. "Well Raynor, it seems you and your comrades have come through once again. It also appears you managed to find and rescue the last remaining members of the Confederate Old Families as well, I have to say that I'm quite impressed" the officer praised.

Nova saw that both Andrew and Raynor seemed a little surprised judging by their thought patterns and facial expressions. "Thanks general Matheson , it's pretty rare to here praise from a guy like you towards men like me" said Raynor. The general waved the rebel commander off "I'm more than willing to give credit where credit is due Raynor, I admit that I may not enjoy the thought of my government working with a group that might as well be a band of anti-Dominion pirates but I do respect your abilities as a strategist and tactician" Matheson took in a deep breath before he looked over at the last remaining members of the Confederate Old Families.

"I'm going to be completely honest with all of you, the Umojan Government has mixed feelings at best in regards to you seeking political asylum on Umoja, especially when one considers the fact that we weren't exactly the best of friends after the nuclear devastation of Korhal, however they have decided allow all of you political asylum from the Terran Dominion" Matheson explained much to the relief of Nova's friends.

After a quick goodbye between Nova and her old friends, Matheson lead the last surviving members of the Confederate Old Families into the Umojan dropship. Before entering the dropship himself Corbin Phash went up to both Raynor and Andrew and thanked the two of them profusely for returning his son to him before he and his son both entered the dropship.

As the dropship's ramp closed everyone could hear the dropship's engines turn as it prepared to lift off. Nova watched the military transport slowly make its way back to the airlock and hoped that Morgan and the others would have a much brighter future.

Andrew approached Nova while she watched the ship make its exit and said "Do you still want to finish up that tour?" he asked. Nova turned and smiled at the other Ghost operative "I think I'd like that".

To be continued


	12. Adjusting

StarCraft Ghost Warrior

Chapter 12

Adjusting

A/N: To my faithful readers, thank you all for reading this story and your continued support. For those of you who have decided to review my story i have something to say, I don't likereviews that are along the lines of "This is good, keep going" what I want is feedback, I want you to tell me _why_ you liked this story and what I can do to improve it.

Also I believe that since Delta was going to be working in a machine factory back on New Sydney before the wrangler showed up, it only makes sense that she'd have to learn a lot about engineering in regards to how to construct and repair various weapons and vehicles.

* * *

-Hyperion-

* * *

It had been almost a full week since Nova and Delta had joined the Raiders. During this time they had both been trying their best to make themselves useful to the group. Given her skills in engineering, Delta had been assigned to the hanger to work with Rory Swann and the rest of his team.

At first the Raider's chief engineer was immeasurably skeptical on the mechanical skill that a girl that had barely managed to hit adolescence. However Rory Swann was proven to be mistaken at the girl's ability at mechanical engineering. In fact Swann had to admit that the kid's knowledge of military engineering was as good, if not better than some of the other engineers that were working for the Raiders.

Nova had been training in CQC with Andrew and had been brushing up on her marksmanship skills on the ship's shooting range. Most of the other members of the Raiders were unexpectedly civil with her. Given the large amount of distrust that a large number of Dominion marines held towards psionics and how the guards at the Academy had always acted around her and the other trainees, Nova had pretty much assumed that the feeling was universal. Much to their surprise this wasn't the case with Raynor's Raiders

The blonde telepath/telekinetic quickly deduced that this was probably because Andrew had spent so much time with the Raiders over the past several years that they had become less wary of Psionics. Despite this however there were still more than a fair number of Raiders that were still somewhat suspicious of a former Dominion Ghost trainee. However that was to be expected, given the hefty amount of rumors that had been circulating in regards to the Dominion's Ghost Program for the past few years.

This made it somewhat understandable that they would be wary around her. By the end of the first week, the crew's thoughts of suspicion and distrust had started to dissipate a little bit as they had begun concentrating on other, more important matters. Unfortunately it was still blatantly obvious to both Nova and her surrogate little sister that the crew's suspicion about their allegiances hadn't completely faded from their minds.

At the current moment Nova was making her way down towards the Hyperion's large hanger bay hoping to see how Delta was doing. After they had officially joined the Raiders, Delta had started to spend a large amount of time in the hanger bay which was at the opposite end of the ship from the gym and the shooting range where Nova was training which made it difficult for the two of the two of them to hang out. In fact it had gotten to the point where the only times that Nova really saw Delta was when they headed back to their shared quarters to turn in for some sleep after they had finished their shifts on the Hyperion.

Today though Nova had been given a day off from training and she decided to spend at least some of it with Delta. Ever since the two of them started to take on their respective roles, Nova hadn't seen much of her surrogate sister since their shifts took place in the opposite ends of the ship. Granted Nova's duties were pretty light (in her opinion at least) when she wasn't going into combat, all she really had to do was spar with Andrew and some of the other Raiders as well as work on her skills down at the shooting range.

After walking through the Hyperion's corridors for a little while longer Nova finally reached the door that lead into the hanger. This hanger was a little different than the one that Nova and the others had used when they docked the Swift Messenger to the ship. Instead of it being crowded with random crates and other miscellaneous objects, this one was filled to the brim on one side with wraiths, wyrms (A/N: The wyrm was the predecessor to the viking in StarCraft 2 for those of you who haven't read the StarCraft: Frontline comics) and dropships.

On the other side there were rows of siege tanks, goliaths, hellions, stingers (The stinger was going to be a unit in the scrapped StarCraft Ghost), APCs and a seemingly endless number of SCVs.

It was a vast armada of ground and air war machines, almost all of them looked ready for battle at a moment's notice. During her time in the Ghost Academy the Preceptors had said that the estimated strength of most anti-Dominion terrorist groups including Raynor's Raiders was minimal at best. The sight in front of her proved that this wasn't the case at all. Granted the Raiders couldn't stand against the entire Dominion military by themselves in a conventional combat operation but with all this stuff they made a more than effective resistance movement.

It took a little bit of walking but eventually the Ghost trainee found Delta on top of one of the siege tank's turrets fixing one of the tank's access panels that maintenance crews used in case the siege tank needed field repairs. "Hey Delta" the blonde telepath/telekinetic called out. Unfortunately the young girl that had been working on the tank didn't seem to hear Nova call out her name as she was too engrossed in her work to notice anything that was going on around her.

Nova gave an almost exasperated sigh before she decided to try a much easier way of getting the girl's attention _"Hey, Delta look behind you"_ sent Nova. That managed to get the girl's attention. Almost immediately after Delta received the message she stopped working on the access panel of the siege tank and turned around to face her surrogate sister. The moment that she saw Nova, Delta all but jumped off of the tank and all but enveloped the older girl in a sudden and tight hug.

It took a few moments but eventually Delta released the older girl and looked up at her with a happy smile on her face "Nova what are you doing down here I thought you had sparring lessons with some of the other crew at the gym?" she asked curiously. Nova just gave the girl a shrug and said "Well I got the day off, so I figured that I'd see if I could hang out with you for a while"

Delta's grin started to stretch from ear to ear, for her it had been way too long since they had spent any time together. Of course she'd have to ask Swann if it was alright to take a break earlier than she normally would. The two found Swann going over some of the engineering reports by one of the hanger's consoles. The short man's organic right hand was typing in commands into the console's system. His left arm however was an almost unnerving metal claw was just hanging there, occasionally it would move a little, making a small yet still noticeable mechanical whirring noise as it did.

"Hey mister Swann!" Delta called out. The chief engineer of the Raiders looked up from the console and looked over at Delta and her friend with a curious look "Yeah, what do you need?" the chief engineer called. "Um, Would it be alright if I could have my break a little earlier than normal today?" Delta requested a little nervously.

Swann only took a minute to think about the kid's request. Ever since she had come aboard the Hyperion Delta had worked almost nonstop whenever her shift started. Hell unlike some of the other engineers on the battlecruiser she seemed to actually _enjoy_ the work she was being given. It was pretty obvious that the kid deserved an early break, hell she deserved the rest of the day off at least.

The chief engineer looked back over at the two of them and was about to say "You know what, go ahead and take the day off, you've earned it" when he realized something "One or both of you have already read my mind haven't you? So there's really no need to say what I'm about to say right?" he asked. The two girls looked at each other for a moment before nodding in confirmation. Swann let out an exaggerated sigh "Alright then, get a move on before I make the two of you pull double shifts for illegal use of the head" he remarked while he gestured towards the door that lead out of the hanger.

Once the two were out of the hanger and away from anyone who might be listening, Delta spoke up "Hey Nova, can I ask you a question?" she requested. Nova looked over at the girl, and responded "Sure" not really seeing why not. Delta let out a bated breath before speaking in rapid fire succession "Do you have a crush on Andrew?" the question had been spoke so quickly that it took a moment for Nova to decipher what it was she had just heard. When she did catch up to what Delta had said, Nova's face slowly started to turn a dark red as she attempted to sputter out a response.

For a few moments Nova could barely get out a word before she finally sighed and gave the girl her response "Look, we're just friends, that's it" she said although she sounded more like she was trying to reassure her self rather than Delta. Unfortunately for Nova her attempt to reassure both herself and the girl wasn't working at all. Delta folded her arms and looked at Nova with firm look "Are you sure?" she asked, obviously the girl still highly skeptical about Nova's claims.

Nova let out a sigh, really didn't want to deal with this at the moment "Delta could we _please_ not discuss this right now?" she begged. Nova had been hearing comments and thoughts that were along the lines of Delta's question for the past week. Inwardly the blond telepath/telekinetic had to admit that there was a growing attraction towards the male Ghost operative. Delta's stern look continued for a few moments longer before softening into a more playful look "Alright, fine but if you think that this is the last you're gonna hear of this, you've got another thing coming" she remarked.

In response to that comment Nova barely managed to resist the urge to roll her eyes _'Oh you have _no_ idea'_ she thought. Nova knew for a fact that the gossip in regards to her and Andrew's relationship (or lack of) probably wouldn't go away anytime. Despite Nova's claims to the contrary she did feel what could best be described as an attraction towards the young man. Although Nova check his thoughts to see if he had a similar attraction towards her, he was very good at keeping his thoughts private and besides she wouldn't do that to him on purpose without his consent.

In an attempt to get her mind off those things Nova looked over at the younger girl next to her and asked "So, Delta what do you want to go and do?" she asked. Nova's question was answered just a moment later when she heard Delta's stomach let out a growl. Delta looked a little embarrassed at her stomach's outburst, "Well I guess I could use some food, I missed breakfast earlier" she explained.

Nova snickered a little before she started to lead Delta to the Hyperion's cantina.

* * *

-Ghost Academy, Primary Landing Pad-

* * *

It had taken a quite the amount of time but today was the day that Tosh and the other members of Grey team would be leaving for Altara. Currently Tosh and the rest of the team were keeping themselves busy by preparing supplies in the loading dock while they waited for the battlecruiser: Cyrus to finally arrive. Although the maintenance guys who normally worked the cargo could easily get the job done for them, preceptor Elena thought that it would do the new team some good if they were to cooperate with one another by loading up some of the supplies for the trip to Altara.

The only one that wasn't with the group was Kath who had been told that there was an important message waiting for her. Kath was gone for several minutes but when she returned she was absolutely livid. The instant that she came out the door that lead from the interior of the Ghost academy she screamed "Aal Cistler you walking sack of shit!"

Upon hearing that scream every member of Grey team stopped what it was they were doing and turned to look at the scene that was starting to unfold around them. Aal looked over at Kath with that same smirk he always had on him whenever he had done something to make her life a living hell.

"Why Kath I'm afraid that i don't know what you're talking about" he said calmly and in that same sickeningly smug tone that all but screamed that he knew _exactly_ what it was she was talking about. This only served to enrage the girl even further as she yelled "You get off on hurting people! And that's going to end here!" she yelled as she ran towards him with the clear intent of beating the young man to death.

Despite a clear and very probable threat to his life Aal Cistler remained incredibly calm and he still had that same mocking air about him. Kath was three meters away from striking the smug bastard when a she was restrained from behind by two large hands. "Kath back off" Tosh ordered keeping the girl from doing anything that she'd end up regretting later. "This son of a whore started it!" she yelled.

"I don't care who started it, I'm finishing it!" Tosh yelled before he looked at the rest of Grey team who had watched the entire incident "What are you looking at? Get back to work, now!" he ordered to which the rest of the team complied. The leader of team Grey then looked over at Kath who was now no longer being restrained by Tosh and said "You are coming with me" before he lead the girl towards a more private area.

Once Kath and Tosh were both out of hearing distance Tosh spoke up "You mind telling me what the hell that was about?" he asked looking at her with a no-nonsense expression. Kath let out a sigh, this wasn't easy to get out. Kath proceeded to explain that earlier she had received the message from her father. Initially Kath had hoped that he had sent her a message to tell her that he had been cleared of all charges regarding the whole Sector 9 fiasco. That was a fool's hope. Instead the holo-message showed a tired, haggard man who had no hope left in his eyes.

Kath's father started to explain that Aldeo Cistler and his men had managed to gather an almost overwhelming amount of (fabricated) evidence against him and add a charge of treason against him due to 'shocking new evidence'. With these charges coupled with the accumulated evidence, Mr. Toom was in for little more than a long and humiliating trial which would end up with him either in front of a firing squad or stuck in a labor camp inside New Folsom. After explaining what he was in for Kath's father proceeded to beg his daughter to forgive him for what he was about to do next, even as tears started to fall from his eyes. The message ended after that.

One of the people who had taken Kath to see the message said that two minutes after her father had finished recording the holo-message the man had proceeded to throw himself into an engine core.

After Kath finished telling story of what happened to her father to Tosh, he in a breath while trying to figure out what he could say to her. Although the tall dreadlocked Ghost trainee knew how it felt to lose family. Back on Haji, Tosh's grandmother, the only family he had, died in that small shack that the two of them had been forced into after the townsfolk had found out about Tosh's psionic abilities.

The Hajian elders were a superstitious lot and believed that Tosh's telepathic abilities were the work of the devil and forced both him and his grandma to live with next to nothing in a small shack at the edge of town. Within three years of their 'banishment' Grandma Tosh died. A few days after her death Tosh was picked up by a wrangler and taken to the Ghost Academy.

Tosh never said that his grandmother's death hadn't hit him hard despite her eccentric beliefs in voodoo and other supernatural practices. He also definitely never denied feeling the need to beat the Haji Elders and some of those other idiot townsfolk who liked to harass him and his grandmother whenever they had the opportunity. Despite wanting to do something horrible to them grandma Tosh always told him that they'd get theirs one day for their mistreatment of the one who was blessed by the gods.

Bringing himself back to the present Tosh finally figured out what he had to say to Kath "Look Kath, I know you're pissed that your dad's death and believe me I know what it's like to lose a family member but losing your temper in front of Aal like that. You're just giving him what he wants, and despite your obvious…distaste of that pan-brained jackass we can't have infighting on this team or else we could all end up washing-out of the Academy" he explained.

Kath was silent for a moment or two before she finally responded to Tosh's little speech, "Fine I'll tolerate that bastard for now" she grumbled obviously not happy about the whole situation. Life was so much easier back when both Red and Blue teams were on opposing sides rather than being in the same unit. However life also wasn't fair and it seemed that she had to work with Red team for the time being.

Kath was broken out of her thoughts when Tosh spoke up again "Come on Kath we ought to head back now" he said before the two of them headed back to go and help the rest of the group with packing up the equipment they'd be using for the training exercise.

When they got back to the rest of the group they noticed that they were still packing some of the supplies and most of them didn't really pay much attention to Tosh and Kath's absence. The only one who did was Dylanna Okyl who felt a emotional tidal wave of jealousy and anger surge through. Dylanna scowled as she glared daggers at Kath who was currently helping Lio out with his workload. Dylanna just glared at Kath's from behind for a while before she finally decided to return to her work, her thoughts turning to what she thought may have happened in the 'conversation' earlier between the two other members of Grey team.

They continued to pack their supplies for a few more minutes before director Bick and superintendent Sarco Angelini exited from the main building and approached the landing pad where the trainees were currently at. Once Tosh and the others saw the heads of the Ghost Academy they immediately dropped what they were doing and stood at attention.

Director Bick walked forwards a few steps before he started to give what was obviously a well rehearsed speech "I know that most of you are impatient to leave for your training exercise on Altara but before you leave I just want you all to know that everyone here is very impressed of the progress you all have made during these last few weeks, you all have made very good progress. This is exactly why we're sending you out on this combined exercise, remember there is no longer any Red or Blue teams here, only team Grey. Now all of you go out there and make us proud!"

With his speech finished, the director of the Ghost Academy allowed preceptor Elena to take the floor. Elena looked over at the director and thanked him before turning back to the trainees "For those of you who don't know me I'm preceptor Elena. I'm coming along as an observer for this exercise to evaluate how well you all perform. During your time on Altara I expect all of you to treat this as a live combat mission and act accordingly" she stated.

After Elena finished speaking the director and the superintendent headed back into the Ghost Academy. Apparently he was too busy to see them all off or something. With the speech finished everyone returned to packing the equipment that they'd be using for the training mission.

* * *

-Hyperion, Cantina-

* * *

After being given a day off Nova and Delta soon found themselves in the Hyperion's primary cantina since there weren't many places available to go to when you were off duty. The cantina itself was actually quite larger than what most newcomers had expected whenever they first entered that section of the ship. However a large cantina was to be expected when one considered the fact that the Hyperion housed well over a thousand crewmen on board. Therefore there had to be some kind of entertainment somewhere or else the crew would more than likely end up dying of boredom.

By the time that Nova and Delta had entered the Hyperion it was already half full with off duty crewmembers. Almost all of the gathered crew were talking with one another and having a good time. Eventually the two psionics found a table that wasn't being used by the other members of the crew and took a seat.

Nova asked the younger girl if she'd been settling in all right on the Hyperion. Delta nodded "Yeah I've been doing great, Swann and the others in engineering are nice guys" she explained. She then proceeded to tell Nova of her first meeting with them.

When she had first reported for duty in the hanger, every last one Swann's engineers had mentally questioned themselves on what their commander was thinking by letting a twelve year old into the engineering division of the Raiders. The looks on their faces were priceless when she showed them her engineering prowess by fixing the auto loading mechanism on one of the goliaths' auto-guns. Over the next couple of days, the other engineers quickly warmed up to the girl and practically treated her like she was family to them.

After Delta had finished, she inquired on how Nova had been adjusting to life on the ship. Nova explained that she'd been working on her accuracy down at the ship's range for the past few days as well as sparing with Andrew and some of the other crewmembers in CQC (Close Quarters Combat) training. Granted their training the Raiders had been giving her didn't even come close to matching the high class training methods that the Ghost Academy employed.

However that was to be expected given that the Raiders didn't even come close to possessing the unlimited amount of resources that the Dominion had at its disposal. Instead they were forced to make do with what they had available to them.

The two continued to chat for another twenty minutes before the conversation that they were having reached another familiar topic that had been discussed prior to their entering the cantina "So are you going to answer my question?" Delta asked. Nova immediately knew what Delta was referring to and let out an annoyed groan.

She had really been hoping that Delta had forgotten about the question from earlier. In a desperate attempt to find a way out of getting into a discussion regarding a clearly private matter, Nova wracked her brain for something that she could use to steer the conversation into a different direction. Unfortunately it was clear just by the look on Delta's face that this wasn't going to happen. Mentally admitting defeat Nova decided to just answer the younger girl's question.

"Fine I'll tell you, but you can't say one _word_ of this to anyone" she said seriously. Delta nodded vigorously, eager to hear what her surrogate big sister had to say. Nova let out a bated breath "I'll admit that I find him very, interesting but I think that it's just a once sided attraction" she explained, her face starting to blush.

Delta looked disappointed at the answer she had been given. Clearly she was hoping for something a little more interesting than just that. Although Delta would probably just tell Nova to try and read his thoughts to see if he was thinking along similar lines as Nova but it was obvious that it was futile considering the mental defenses that the older boy had in his mind it would be difficult at best to try and scan the young man's thoughts.

It seemed as though the only thing that Delta could really do without getting into too much trouble was wait and see what happened with the two of them.

* * *

-Hyperion, Crew Quarters-

* * *

Unlike most of the other members of the Raiders who usually slept in the barracks of the Hyperion, Andrew Cole lived in one of the ship's many guest quarters. After the escape from Tarsonis, it quickly became apparent to everyone that Andrew didn't have much control over his telepathic powers. He could block out some thoughts but if there were a lot of them in a contained space he'd have a lot of difficulty keeping them all out. One of the psi-screens that they had 'borrowed' from a Dominion supply base worked for a little while but he could only wear it eight hours a day which meant that it was a very limited solution.

After a while some of the key officers of the Raiders had decided that it would probably be best to give Andrew his own personal room as opposed to just letting him have a bunk in the barracks with the rest of the grunts. Although this did seem like special treatment at first, nobody really minded. After all there were a lot of the Raiders who preferred to keep their thoughts private and even though they knew that Andrew wouldn't go spilling everyone's deepest most embarrassing secrets to their fellow shipmates if he sensed them thinking about it.

The room that Andrew lived in was relatively modest. There was a simple bed, a desk and a small connected shower room. The desk had a computer with an attached holo-projector which allowed Andrew to look through certain pirated broadcasts to try and get the truth about a story that was unfolding in the universe without having to rely on the Dominion controlled Universal News Network (UNN).

At the current moment Andrew had already completed his training regimen a couple of hours earlier than normal and had decided to head back to his quarters to meditate like he normally did after training. The Protoss form of meditation helped him relax after a hard day's work. Clutched in Andrew's hands was a glowing teal colored crystal that was roughly seven inches in length and was in the shape of a cone. The crystal itself was known by the Protoss as a khadarin ihan crystal.

The Protoss used it as a kind of journal. They would put their memories and experiences into it through telepathy so that maybe others would benefit from such a knowledge. The crystal itself had started out as just a blank slate when Andrew received it from Zeratul but over the past two years he had stored copies of his memories into the crystal and was currently attempting to copy his memories from the past month and a half into the crystal.

The process wasn't too difficult but it could be very time consuming depending on what how many memories you were putting into the crystal. However this never really bothered Andrew overmuch, in fact he enjoyed the peace and quiet he got from the process. After another forty minutes of pouring his memories into the crystal Andrew ceased meditating and checked the clock that was on the wall by the door and saw that several hours had passed since he started. Deciding to call it a day for now he put the crystal back in a small storage container that he kept in his footlocker by the edge of his bed.

Letting out a yawn Andrew laid back on the edge of the mattress and thought of what he'd do after he was finished with training tomorrow. Perhaps he'd ask if Nova wanted to have some lunch with him down in the cantina. Andrew blushed slightly at the thought since it almost sounded like a date. But he had to admit though, Nova was a fascinating girl and Andrew really enjoyed spending time around her. Hopefully he'd work up the nerve to ask her tomorrow.

* * *

To be continued

Sorry for the wait and sorry that the chapter had to be so short but I felt that I had kept you all waiting long enough.


	13. Preparations

StarCraft Ghost Warrior

Chapter 13

Preparations

Disclaimer: I do not own StarCraft or any of its affiliates, I only own my OC's.

Also there's a reference to a boss from one of the Diablo games in here, for those of you who can spot it you get a cookie if you mention it in your review.

* * *

-Dominion Battlecruiser, Cyrus, Currently En-Route to the Altara System-

* * *

At first Tosh and the rest of team Grey (more specifically Lio who had practically been jumping with excitement upon seeing the massive ship) were excited to be on an actual Terran battlecruiser. However that excitement quickly gave way to a near insane amount of boredom when the commodore of the ship and his second in command had informed them that they would be confined to a small portion of the ship for the entirety of the voyage and that any attempts to access other areas of the ship would not be tolerated.

There was little to do other than eat, sleep, watch a handful of programs on a moderately sized viewing screen or look something up on the hypernet (A/N: the hypernet is StarCraft's version of the internet for those of you who haven't read any of the comics or the books). However the worst of it all was the fact that they were being treated like a bunch of disobedient schoolchildren rather than future Ghost Operatives.

It was irritating to say the least. The officers and the crew of this ship made it overly clear in both their thoughts and their words that they didn't' like having to take part in this little excursion to one of the Dominion fringe worlds and of course it was all _their_ fault that they had been picked for this detail of work. At least they wouldn't really have to interact with the commodore and his crew all that much which was fine by them.

Tosh and the other guests aboard the battlecruiser had already finished unpacking the equipment that they had brought with them and had started to settle into their new living quarters. The room itself was a bit of a mix between a military barracks and a rec-room. There were more than enough bunks for everyone to use, a pair of restrooms/showers were located nearby and there was a moderately sized kitchen/dining area for everyone to use.

Currently team Grey were all seated at the table and having a relatively modest meal that wasn't too different from the food that they normally had back at the Ghost Academy. While they ate they conversed about a variety of things, most of them trivial, at least until Kath brought something up that the whole group had been asking themselves ever since they had been informed that a battlecruiser would be picking them up and taking them to Altara.

"I don't really get it. Why do they need a battlecruiser for a Ghost training exercise?" she asked. Tosh who was sitting at the head of the table shrugged "I know it doesn't really make much sense" it was at that point that Andie, one of the former Red team members and the resident conspiracy theorist of the group decided to give his own input "Maybe the whole training exercise is a cover story and their trying to hide something dark and sinister" he theorized while stroking his chin in thought.

Almost immediately Dylanna rolled her eyes. She had heard nearly a million of Andie's varying conspiracy theories regarding almost everything that went on in the Dominion and even took place in the Old Confederacy. "There you go again Andie always with the conspiracy theories" she grumbled before she took another bite of her dinner.

The next one to speak up was Lio "Well we are at war, so the military has to keep some of their operations a secret" he offered but he didn't sound like he really bought his own explanation all that much.

"Still doesn't explain why we need to be taken to Altara in a battlecruiser though, I mean I know that it's a world that's on the border of the Dominion but still, it seems to be a little overkill to use a capital class warship and several dozen marines just to transport just a small group of Ghost trainees" Tosh said as he stroked his chin thoughtfully.

It was at this point that Alejandro perked up with a knowing grin on his face "Actually I think I may be able to explain that" he said while the others turned to look at him. When Alejandro noticed that everyone's attention was on him the Ghost Trainee elaborated further on the matter.

"When we were picked up by the gallant commodore and his second in command I took a small peek into their thoughts, and while both of them have a _very_ guarded minds I managed to pick up a couple snippets of their thoughts, mainly irritated complaints that they were trying to keep to themselves but I caught a mention of Tarsonis, so after we boarded the ship I decided to look up the battle cruiser's service record on the hypernet and as it turns out that this ship was at the battle of Tarsonis. When the Zerg attacked, the commodore of this ship fled the field and as such he and his men were quickly branded cowards by general Duke and emperor Mengsk" the young man explained.

Everyone then proceeded to look at the boy strangely. Tosh raised an eyebrow at Alejandro, that did explain why the guy had been on the hypernet for well over an hour and a half after they had finally finished unpacking the equipment they'd be using for the training mission. It was at this point that Lio decided to speak up "Well that does kind of explain the condition of ship."

Amelia then cocked a brow as she gave Lio a puzzled look "What's wrong with the ship? It seemed fine to me" she said. Lio looked over at his fellow squadmate incredulously. He knew that she couldn't feel, it none of them could feel it. The ship's pain and anguish, for Lio it was almost unbearable to listen to at times.

"The ship's in a lot of pain, it hasn't been repaired or refitted once since the Battle of Tarsonis. Three of the secondary engines had to be dismantled because they were too damaged and the shields are sub par at best, they even removed several of the ship's weapons and took the Yamato cannon offline. There's only a minimal crew aboard, barely enough to keep the ship running. This ship, it wants to die" Lio explained to a very surprised and almost disbelieving audience.

The first one to respond to Lio was Dylanna who wasn't even trying to keep the look of disbelief off of her face "No, you're wrong about the lack of crew here Lio, I saw a whole bunch of marines when we came aboard, they were at least platoon sized"

"Dylanna I pretty sure that everyone saw them, but what I noticed was their unit's insignia, a big yellow slash. That's a mark of cowardice, those marines were probably stationed aboard this ship after it retreated from the battle of Tarsonis" Aal Cistler explained with a small chuckle. Tosh looked somewhat pensive for a moment "So what does that say about this mission?" he muttered to himself just loudly enough for everyone to hear him say it.

"That these morons can't be trusted with anything other than just being part of a taxi service" Dylanna remarked. The next one to offer there input was one of the former Red team members Obi "Or maybe Andie's right and there is something is going on and we just don't know what it is" Kath looked at the boy and almost snorted, she never really bought into the conspiracy theories that she always heard about when she looked on the hypernet back at the Ghost Academy during some of her spare time there "Or Dylanna's right and there isn't anything going on"

Before anyone could say anything else Tosh sat up from his chair and started to give what was obviously a speech "Or maybe we don't know all of the facts yet, but I do know this, emperor Mengsk has given us this chance to be the most important weapons ever made in the Dominion" he said gathering everyone's attention before he continued with his speech "There's a war going on and I say: LET'S BE HEROES!" Tosh shouted getting everyone's spirits up "Now, WHO'S WITH ME!?" he shouted as he raised his fist upwards before everyone else that was seated stood up and yelled their own affirmations towards him.

As this was going on, preceptor Elena looked at the trainees and gave the bare mention of a smile. Tosh sure knew how to get people going. There was a fire in those eyes of his, the determined spark of a warrior who was meant to do amazing things. Hell it was almost exactly the same as Andrew Cole's before his tragic death back at the academy.

Elena's smile quickly evaporated when she thought about Andrew, Nova and Delta's untimely deaths. But hopefully they were in a better place now, free of the violence and destruction that had been plaguing the Korprulu Sector ever since the Guild Wars, the three of them deserved that much.

Soon Elena's thoughts turned to the inevitable fate of Tosh and the other members of team grey. After their graduation they would be mind wiped and they would become little more than cold, calculating and emotionless killers for the Dominion. Whenever Elena thought about her students that had graduated she felt regret that she couldn't prevent such a thing from happening to them.

Perhaps when the problems with the Zerg, Protoss and anti-Dominion rebels were taken care of, Mengsk would allow those in the Ghost Academy to choose their own lives instead of having their futures stolen from them.

* * *

-Hyperion, Shooting Range-

* * *

The shooting range was almost always bustling with activity, the marines that were aboard the Hyperion had to train for up to four hours a day in order to keep their skills sharp. They also took another four hours in the gym practicing hand to hand combat as well as toning their upper and lower bodies. The marines that were under sergeant Lister's command were already in the shooting range already clad in CMC powered armor.

Sergeant Dwayne Lister was a veteran of both the Great War and the Brood Wars and had even seen some action in the Guild Wars that preceded both of them. Because of this he was one of the most looked up to people in the Raiders. Lister had closely cropped graying light brown hair and one brown eye, the other was an ocular implant that gave an almost eerie yellow glow.

A literal maze of battle scars adorned Lister's face, some were from the Guild Wars but most were from the battles that followed Mar Sara. Lister was already a very tall man but put him in a powered combat armor and you had a very intimidating sight.

Lister was currently retrieving one of the practice C14 gauss impaler rifles that were on the weapon's rack just a few feet away from the shooting range. Given how the Raiders didn't have the near-unlimited resources of the Terran Dominion, they couldn't afford to use live ammunition for training purposes so they procured a large number of training rifles for use. These 'weapons' if they could even be called that, only fired paint pellets that were roughly the same size as the spikes that the regular C14s fired (I'm not sure how big the spikes are so feel free to tell me if I'm making some kind of mistake here).

Of course since the weapon was using paint that wasn't being fired at high velocity the weapon's recoil would have been severely limited. So the creators of the 'weapon' used an mechanical vibration unit which would cause the weapon to be (for a lack of better term), pushed backwards whenever it fired to simulate roughly the same amount of recoil that the regular impaler rifles had. The practice rifle even had the same weight as the military variants. The only thing that the practice rifle didn't do was make the same kind of noise that a regular gauss rifle made whenever it fired. Instead all that they heard was a dull *whap* every time the weapon fired off a shot. Hell it was quiet enough that Lister's men were able to have perfectly coherent conversations with one another while they were firing sometimes.

Lister had to admit that this substitute for live weapons training was pretty creative, and it was unlikely that anyone would be seriously injured or killed by a misfire or ricochet. Sure everyone followed standard safety procedures but accidents can happen no matter how hard you try to avoid it.

As the marine got into one of the lanes and spotted a human shaped target that had a Bullseye symbol on the torso, the one that would have been covered the head was replaced by a life sized picture of Emperor Mengsk's face. Lister chuckled to himself and took aim with his weapon and squeezed the trigger sending several red paint pellets downrange and into 'Mengsk's' face covering it with blood red paint.

Lister then proceeded to empty the fifty round paint round magazine into the rest of the target and smiled to himself as the easily removable red paint slowly dripped onto the floor of the firing lane. As Lister reached for another magazine one of the other marines in Lister's squad, a new recruit to the Raiders that went by the name of Mickey piped up "Hey sarge I got a question" he said. Lister didn't turn his head and instead reloaded his weapon and started firing again "Sure what?"

"Why the hell are we letting Andrew's girlfriend and her little sister join up, I mean for all we know the guys back at Ghost Academy brainwashed all three of 'em and had them sent here to spy on us" he said. Lister then proceeded to roll his eyes. There were a few guys that were on his team that didn't really trust some of the new arrivals, especially if they were psionic and with good reason.

Psionics were almost always considered to be a little creepy by just about everyone and as a result didn't have the same amount of trust that a non psionic would normally have. Hell it had taken Lister nearly a month to get used to Andrew, despite the fact that he was a really nice guy when he wasn't killing the absolute hell out of the enemy when he was in combat.

Besides Lister knew that if Andrew's cover had been blown they probably wouldn't have sent him, two other Ghost trainees _and_ the last surviving members of the Old Families to the Hyperion "First off Mickey, there are telltale signs that someone's been brain panned no matter how well it's been done, second the docs went over all of them pretty damn thoroughly and gave all of them a clean bill of health. Third why in the hell would Mengsk let some of the last bits of the Terran Confederacy escape him before he could have them killed?" he responded.

Mickey seemed to consider that for a moment as he finished emptying his clip into the target before reloading his weapon "Okay maybe Andrew didn't get brain panned while he was in the nuthouse, but what if those other two Ghost trainees are really double-agents or some shit like that?"

It was at that point that another member of the squad, private Chen, piped up "Oh come on man do you really think that a twelve year old girl would be the Dominion's first choice to send in as a spy, I mean I've talked to one of the guys that works with Swann and she seems more interested in working on machinery than she does slitting our throats while we sleep and as for the other chick, somehow I doubt that that she's a spy either I mean all she really does is train and hang out with Andrew and that other kid all the time" he explained.

Mickey looked like he was about to give a retort to Chen's comment about how it could just be a way for her to try get them to let their guard down. However the soldier wasn't able to given how his commanding officer decided to intervene in this line of conversation. "Okay Mickey listen up, Raynor gave the kid the okay to join up and although I'm a little more than reluctant to accept another psionic into our ranks but the decision is out of our hands. All we can really do Is keep an eye on her" he explained before he turned to look at everyone else on the gun lanes.

"Now could everyone focus on shooting these targets please, we still have some more time on the range and I'd rather not waste it before we head for the gym" said Lister before he and his men returned to concentrating on the shooting lanes. Despite the fact that Lister was defending his commanding officer's decision on taking in the two Ghost trainees he still wondered if that was a good idea to bring them aboard, sure they could prove to be a valuable asset in their war against the Dominion but there was a lot of prejudice against former members of the Dominion.

However after a while the former members of the Dominion were accepted into the Raiders, it just took some time. Eventually Nova and Delta would be fully accepted by the crew as well.

* * *

Nova had finished up her training regimen and visit to Delta in the hanger a few hours ago. Currently the young woman was in the Hyperion's cantina talking with Andrew who had asked her earlier if she wanted to have some lunch together in the cantina after training. Nova had gladly accepted the invitation from the other psionic and was a little more than eager to spend some time with Andrew although she tried her best not to show it.

The topics of their conversation eventually started to drift from some things that were for the most part pretty trivial, to more important matters. Eventually Nova asked Andrew what system the Hyperion was even heading towards.

Andrew was planning on telling Nova this later but he supposed that now wasn't really a bad time either "I guess that there's no reason I can't tell you, we're currently headed for Altara, we've got something special planned for the anniversary of emperor Mengsk's inauguration. There's a experimental weapons plant situated far away from any of the major settlements so there's no chance of civilians getting caught in the middle of the raid, we'll hit the base hard and fast, take anything that may prove to be useful and then get out" he explained.

Well that certainly explained why everyone had been training so hard as of late. _'Or is all of that the regular training routine for the Raynor's Raiders?'_ she wondered partially to herself and thought for a moment about asking that thought aloud but eventually Nova decided that she would probably be better off not knowing. Sure the workout program that the Raider's had available did help her get into shape but it was a pretty tiring regimen for her to do every day.

Sure she'd get used to it eventually but until then it was a pure nightmare. And she didn't even want to think about how Delta would react to it if she chose to go into the field when she was older. However despite all of the intense amount of training that she had to undergo, Nova could safely say that so far that she hadn't regretted her choice to join the Raiders once.

"So when will we be there?" Nova asked to which Andrew just gave a shrug "Probably a couple of days from now I suppose. Also I think that you should know that Raynor gave the ok for you to take part in the operation, so this will be your first official mission as part of the Raiders" Andrew explained to a very surprised Nova.

Andrew raised an eyebrow at Nova "What you didn't really think that you'd be training and not going on any kind of a combat op when you joined us right?" he remarked. Nova shook her head "No I just didn't think that I was going to be let back in the field so soon that's all" she explained.

It was true it had only been a few days since she and Delta had arrived on the Hyperion and given Nova's level of field experience she had thought that it would be a while before she'd be let back out into the field. After all she had only been in one official battle and it wasn't a very lengthy one at that.

Not even needing to go into the young woman's head to know what she was thinking Andrew elaborated more on the subject "Well the Raiders like to give their new recruits some real battle experience as quickly as possible but we always try to have at least five experienced soldiers to every one recruit when we head out into combat" Andrew explained.

Nova thought about that for a moment. The idea behind bringing in limited numbers of recruits with a much larger group of more experienced soldiers actually made a lot of sense. The more experienced marines could keep the recruits from panicking or doing something incredibly foolish while they were in combat and the recruits could get some real combat experience.

"That actually sounds like a pretty good idea" Nova admitted before deciding to get a little off-topic "Just out of curiosity what do you plan on doing when this is all over?" she asked. Andrew looked confused at the question for a moment "To be honest I've never really thought about it, I mean Matt has a plan to create a kind of Terran Republic after we finally overthrow Mengsk but I honestly don't really know what I'm going to do afterwards, I guess I'll have to think about it" he then looked at Nova and asked "What about you Nova? What do you plan on doing after this revolution is finished?"

Nova let out a small chuckle she hadn't really been thinking about things like future either "I guess I don't really know either now that I think about it. I mean my original goal back at the Ghost Academy was just to become a Ghost and get that memory wipe but things have changed considerably since then, now my goal is just helping you guys overthrow the Dominion. I'll get back to you after we finally complete that last one" she explained.

It seemed that the both of them hadn't really given much thought about the future beyond taking down Mengsk and the Terran Dominion. But they both took comfort in the fact that at least now they actually had a chance to make a future for themselves that didn't involve being mindless slaves to an increasingly oppressive and corrupt government. "So Nova, how's the crew been treating you since you got here?" Andrew asked. Ordinarily Andrew would have asked this question a couple of days earlier but he wanted to wait until after Nova had fully acclimated to life on the Hyperion.

Nova just gave him an almost incredulous look "You mean to tell me that you haven't been 'listening in' on everyone?" she asked. Andrew shook his head and Nova immediately remembered his ability of being able to keep himself from hearing in to the thoughts of others unless they were broadcasting it loudly enough. "Well so far things have been going more or less the way you'd expect, some of the crew doesn't trust me, others are willing to wait and see before making any judgments" Nova explained.

Andrew sighed, he had hoped that the rest of the Raiders would be a bit more accommodating to the young woman but given the near universal distrust that people had with psionic individuals it was probably asking too much. Sure almost all of the Raiders had gotten used to Andrew but that had taken well over a couple of months.

The only ones that had accepted him right away were Jim Raynor, Matt Horner, Elliot Swann and a few of the other high ranking officers in the Raiders. Now just about everyone was friendly with him and he knew that it would take a while but eventually they would accept Nova and Delta as well.

The Ghost operative was broken out of his thoughts by Nova who had an almost mischievous smile on her face "By the way you wouldn't believe half of the conspiracy theories that some of them have been passing around lately" she said in an attempt to lighten the mood a little bit. Andrew barely managed to contain the urge to snicker at that last comment, some of the guys sure did love their conspiracy theories. Curiously Andrew asked "What kind of theories?"

"You sure you want to know?" Nova asked, mock concern in her tone. Andrew nodded. Nova gave an exaggerated sigh of exasperation "Okay, you asked for it but don't blame me if you die from laughter" she remarked with a grin before telling him some of the crazier theories that she had scanned up as of late. Within only a few moments the two of them were laughing at the absurd things that Nova had been scanning for the last few days.

* * *

-Altara, Dominion Military Research Facility Duriel, Doctor Genzken's Quarters-

* * *

Unlike the living quarters' of the other soldiers and scientists that resided in the Duriel facility, doctor Genzken's quarters was located below the facility and was only a short walk from the labs. Inside the man's living area was a small one person bed, a dresser and a desk that had a small computer terminal on top of it. The desk itself was also covered in various notes and experiment reports that went into great detail describing some of the other experiments that were going on at this charming little facility

The room's sole occupant was currently sitting at the desk and was looking over two reports in particular. One was a report on some of the Protoss that they had captured after one of their spec-ops teams had successfully raided a remote and relatively small Protoss colony world a few weeks back. Each of the captives had been fitted with custom built psi-inhibitors which were able to cut off their connection to the 'Khala' as they called it shortly after they had arrived.

This way they could not be 'heard' or located by any Protoss observers that found their way into the system. The last thing that Genzken needed was a Protoss military strike force raiding the Duriel facility in an attempt to rescue their fellows and take vengeance on the ones that had imprisoned them. The report itself was on the results of a dissection on two Protoss test subjects that had expired while in their 'care' and it didn't contain anything that was a really substantial find in it. All it had was biological information on the Protoss that the Dominion had already known about.

However the other lab report from their infestation research and control project, proved to be far more intriguing. Apparently some of the newer infested test subjects had begun to change into something even less human. According to a number eyewitness accounts from several traumatized researchers and lab workers; some of the infested specimens had actually started to mutate even further.

They had grown new set of legs had begun to form from their bodies and all four legs had started to take on a metallic spider like shape. The skin of the subjects had started to appear much more like a Zerg carapace instead of just a mismatch of Zerg and human skin. Their hands had turned into long bony arms that had razor sharp talons for fingers.

In fact when they were attempting to move one of them to a larger cell given the rate that the infested human had been changing. Unfortunately one of the creatures had managed to break the bindings that they had used to keep them from trying to break out of their cell and butchered several lab assistants and security guards before they were able to kill it.

The report also stated that the corpse had been placed in cold storage and that they would dissect the infested creature first thing tomorrow to see what kind of changes to the inside of the body had been made. Oh Genzken could hardly contain his anxiety to see the lab results. Perhaps he'd even perform the dissection himself. Not only that but also the next batch of test subjects for the project would be arriving within a couple of days.

Genzken then turned his thoughts to the files of one of the new subjects. Alejandro Curze had the most potential out of all of them. He was at least a class nine psionic and had been known to use telekinesis as well as other advanced psionic techniques. The only problem was how to get him away from his teammates without their knowledge. He could just have some of his security guards take all of them to several cells and then have him taken then. However doing something as crude as that left a bitter taste in the scientist's mouth. Genzken always preferred subtlety and subterfuge to brutishly direct methods.

Maybe he could arrange for some kind of physical examination for the visitors after they arrived at his facility and have him taken into 'The Dungeon' as everyone who worked on the surface levels seemed to be calling the underground laboratories. That could work but it would draw some suspicions from Genzken's guests. No what would be much more prudent would be to arrange for an 'accident' for mister Curze and have him go missing while they were out in the field doing their training.

And while the base's security detail and quite possibly the other visitors were out searching for the 'lost' trainee, Genzken and his colleagues would be free to perform whatever experiment they pleased on the boy.

Genzken's lips started to curl upwards at the thought and began to make notes on which infestation strain should be used on that particular test subject after he and his friends had arrived at the Duriel facility.

* * *

To be continued.


End file.
